He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently and they described criticism of his mental state as bigotry. Now he’s declining to participate in their deluded hysteria and they’re insisting he’s losing his mind.
Really lovely. Yet another troglodyte that considers the use of "retard" as a "great cultural victory." I'm sure all those parents with developmentally disabled children that they love are applauding your "courage." Fuck off.
Really lovely. Yet another keyboard warrior that considers the use of "fuck off" as a "great cultural victory." I'm sure all those people with the social skills not to curse out a total stranger are applauding your "courage." Have a nice day.
This "keyboard warrior" uses her full name, Mike, unlike you. And "fuck off" is not a great cultural victory but a suitable reply to somebody who lacks any "sensibility to the inner feelings and whole inner significance of lives that are different from our own" (to quote William James). Why waste social skills on those who have none?
Use your fingers, so you can count, William. It would be three. And "bullies and cowards" usually refers to people who pick on those who are weaker than themselves or less in number. Neither applies here, does it?
First of all, bub, my name is Francesca, not Frances (surprise, surprise, we're not all of Anglo heritage and would like to be addressed in a way that recognizes that fact!). Second, I was lucky enough to happen to work with the community of developmentally disabled folks (only because that was the only job available in my area at the time, not by "charitable" intention), and I was surprised to find out that some individuals in the developmentally disabled community are aware of the contempt embedded in the term "retard" when it is used by supposedly (and I emphasize the word "supposedly" developmentally abled individuals), and IT HURTS THEIR FEELINGS. Now, if you have the social skills that Mikey pretended you have, then you don't want to unintentionally hurt people, right? Even if they don't happen to be present, right? So take the time, and that unimpaired brain that you were lucky enough to draw at birth, and find a new fucking word!
From my reading of Yuri's post, I think he was probably referring to Democrats as retarded. I was you, FRANCESCA, who immediately associated the offending term with the developmentally disabled community, which is truly offensive. Intent matters.
Badnabor, using a term that references a group of people as a pejorative is commonly considered a sign of ignorance. In this case, where it references a group of people who can't fight back, it is cowardly as well as ignorant. Now, if you belong to that group of people who confuse ignorance with being cool,
The same could be said about your use of expletives. The group of ignoramuses would include YOU. I know going in, now that I have read your unhinged commentary, that it is a waste of anyone's time spent attempting to use reason to point out the flaws in your position. Labeling a Democrat, or even you, as a "retard", in this case, is only directed at a specific target and pointing out that, in the opinion of the writer, the target's actions suggest that of less than ideal cognitive function. Your insistence that it references and is offensive to any others is without merit. In your obvious zeal, to signal your virtue, YOU have twisted and turned the slur, aimed at another, towards the very group that you claim to defend.
And if she did hear the entire conversation that inspired the line, somewhat flawed memory here, but roughly "And if any of you homos call me Francis, I kill you" might be a bit too much.
I do use the "Lighten up Francis" line to defuse many a tense argument! Probably not going to work here.
St. Francesca of a Sissy, how many in your community of disabled folks read these comments?
Because the term was labelled "hurtful" by the hothouse flowers that control our schools, "retarded" was replaced with the euphemism you use. Do you prefer "insane"? I think that term ought to make a comeback. Like it or not, "retard" is an insult aimed at stupid people with unimpaired faculties, so you'd better get used to it. Tom Segura has a pretty good comedy routine about the evolution of the word. You should watch it. (P.S./Edit): Louis CK has a great routine about the use of "retarded" as well. His pronouncing it in a Boston accent, "Retaaaaahded" is a riot. https://youtu.be/qALqXrAS9Ug?t=159
Fetterman deserves the epithet, since he lucked into becoming a public figure, getting elected after having a stroke, which is one of the most absurdly funny events of my lifetime. It says more about his party and the electorate than it does about him. Despite his condition, he seems to have gained some sanity regarding his politics. The real offense to propriety is the fact that he was elected to office in the first place.
You're the lady instigator on the subway, the one who wouldn't let a guy wear his Maga hat in peace, then you went splat on the platform trying to chase him down. TDS is strong in you.
"The Stupids Step Out," by Harry Allard, is one of my favorite children’s books. I read it to my children and grandchildren, who thought it hilarious. I still refer to it in my old age whenever I do something stupid (often!).
I'm so over the importance of word police. It has proven to be a seriously f'd up control experiment. Words and their weight are open to interpretation. When someone says mentally challenged we understand that the correct word used to be retardation.
And we don't use either as a pejorative unless we are ignorant, right?
To all of you who belong to the "I can say whatever I want" crowd, grow a spine and get used to being called out for saying cruel and ignorant crap that you should have left behind in kindergarten. Free speech begets free speech.
You have a serious problem with boundaries. You need to get used to the fact that no one gives a flying fuck about your etiquette issues. We fully understand that they are your personal issues. Who do you think you are? I would suggest by your comments that you are greatly misinformed about your self importance and the power it has on others. If you are so fragile that you absolutely lose your shit because of a word then accept when you get called out for your idiocy. Grow the fuck up. Free speech begets free speech.
This is speech-policing, which eventuates in the destruction of the 1st Amendment; to be fair, Trump & Zionist-dependent Republicans are also enthusiastically destroying thr 1st Amendment..
Not everyone prescribes to your cult. It's your right to do so. Just know that we see it for what it is. Have yourself a lovely time. Say what you wish whenever or wherever you wish, but don't expect to do it at the expense of others. Don't convince yourself that we must believe you are correct or even that you own an original thought when all you do is repeat propaganda.
I thought there were no boundaries with free speechers. Or is it just you who gets to set them? Not engaging in the pack mentality that characterizes so many of the comments above is not a sign of self-importance but individualism, I think. And, if anyone is "losing their shit," I'd say it is you.
No one here has policed you. "And we don't use either as a pejorative unless we are ignorant, right?" This is YOU engaging in pack or more accurately cult mentality. You have been convinced that you know better and you hold some sense of authority over others. You may speak your mind and think your thoughts, but boundaries prevent you from telling others how they are allowed to speak or think. That is the boundary you have been lead to believe doesn't apply to you. You insinuate that others must follow your personal wishes and if they don't they are less than or ignorant. That's not a world view anyone else must accept. You yourself regularly engage in name calling and passive aggressive jabs and insults. Someone has convinced you that being a bossy jerk is a virtue with some higher calling and that it's in the name of protecting others. It's not. You're just a bossy jerk at the end of the day. I don't give a hoot if you believe me or not. That's your prerogative. But understand that if you overstep your place in the world someone else has the right to knock your dumb ass back into your own space. Welcome to the real America.
People who are triggered by words sacrifice their personal power at the altar of victimhood. Moreover, those who are triggered in the cause of protecting others are narcissists. We just get out what we carry in!
Yeah, I thought so to. It certainly was the only job I ever did that seemed to have a real purpose. It also opened my eyes to how damned thoughtless and cruel we can be to people who don't have the power to defend themselves.
Actually, your comment is also interesting, for a much deeper reason.
Her comment sought to assure us that she didn't go looking for a job working with developmentally disabled people (as if there were something wrong with that, which there is not).
Your comment is much more significant, because you seem to be acknowledging that there is a reason for everything, and the fact that no other jobs were available forced her into a position in which her soul could awaken.
Apologies if I'm wrong, but that's really a beautiful observation.
Me too, BookWench! these long threads can be confusing, and you did pick up on what I intended with my comment to Francesca. Thank you for your first response and for your reply to my question.
Are you also opposed to using "idiot" and "moron" as pejoratives? Like "retard," these were once clinical terms. Also, like "retard," they are no longer used in that context.
This politically correct bullshit has been going on for so long... it's so tiring. They keep on evolving their politically correct terminology decade after decade until no one knows what the hell they're trying to describe any more. This nonsense was called out way back when they declared "disabled" to be a pejorative and replaced it with "differently abled" - *as if* being paralyzed from the neck down actually meant that *actually disabled people* in woke bizarro world were in possession of some kind of "super-power"... From that time on, the self-appointed woke warriors have been on the march, trying to impose their cracked worldview on the rational people of the world - and succeeding to a horrifying degree. I am very glad that people are pushing back against this truly retarded nonsense today.
I'm sure that there are people/groups who find the word "blind" offensive. They'd probably prefer something like "differently sighted." The "allowed" nomenclature changes constantly.
Stigmatizing mental illness or incapacity is Very Problematic for the In This House We Believe yard-sign crew until it can be used to burn a heretic at the stake. Then it’s good. Necessary and obvious, in fact.
These transparent about-faces keep readers in the cult, forcing them to disown their own sincerely held beliefs from just last week to maintain the party line. They become trained to wait for the next official opinion to be transmitted to them, since the constantly shifting party line leaves them uncertain whether any original thought they had would be acceptable.
Southern Baptist leaders release a previously secret list of accused sexual abusers
May 27, 202211:08 AM ET
By The Associated Press
In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.
The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019.
Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.
Now, I'm not saying this is "most" Baptist ministers, but you have to admit, it includes way too many. And, it should never have been a "secret list".
FYI in 2024 there were 46,876 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. My fairly small church has three pastor/elders, all of whom preach and teach. You do the math. Although 700 is way too many, it is a small fraction of the pastors in the SBC. Pastors are human beings and human beings are sinners. You really shouldn't have been so quick to come up with this report. You know what He said about casting the first stone, don't you? John 8:7 - He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Secularists have no future, no salvation, no redemption, thus no reason to live, so they call believers idiots and call wisdom literature fairy tales and try to steal your joy. Be glad, give thanks, rejoice!
Umm... Spent the first 30 years of my life around them. It's the reason I turned Agnostic. Father is from the Shenandoah, first wife's family was born again. Sure, I paint with a broad stroke brush, and certainly it is covering (in my hopeful optimism) the majority that are decent, honorable people, but then talk to me about Jerry Falwell, or my cousin Joel....
Too many are grifters like politicians. Also, I should have just said Christian... That way I could cover more ground.
Also to note. Often times our opinions are based on our own personal experiences. I am glad yours have always been positive.
Personal experiences and other people have much less to do with salvation and belief than conviction of one's own sin. Obviously, there are false characters who claim to bring the Gospel. That is ALWAYS the way it's been. If you prefer to let the false prophets dissuade you from belief rather than believe God's Word which is alive and cuts through the garbage to the depths of your being, then that is on you. God IS, and He provides the grace that all of His people need to believe unto salvation. No matter what negative influence people have on your heart, Jesus Christ suffered a grotesque death to save YOU from damnation, and He's alive to prove it. All it takes is you asking him to have mercy on you, a poor sinner.
Or... The Bible is a great book written and edited by men looking to dominate others, and enrich themselves. It's highly possible and far more likely that Jesus was a great philosopher, who garnered followers just like today's "Issues" garner followers, and that unlike today when you are just doxxed, and shadow banned, then you were executed... Those types of things still do happen in the regions Jesus once wandered.
Moses was a great way to teach children about a simple moral code to follow. If you truly read the history and the book itself, it becomes very easy to see other possibilities. Sorry, I don't meet your standards, but I have to walk my own path, and if I'm wrong... I'm wrong... I can eternally live with that decision... Maybe it's the Buddhists who are right and I'll come back as a dung beetle.
Yeah! Maybe, maybe, maybe. But you're right; you WILL eternally live with that decision. My standards? I was just the messenger. You have no bones to pick with me. I'm in the same boat as you are but we have different destinations. Your path (oops, I'm mixing my metaphors) looks very wide and inviting, characterized by all of your free choices, but you can step off onto the straight path any time. Yes, it's more constrictive, more narrow but it will get you safely to the better place.
I completely agree! It is so like the same revisionist tendencies in Russia after the communist revolution succeeded. History was changed in accordance with each new program for how things would be done from then on, and heroes in previous accounts could become officially scum in later versions of the state narrative.
That's "stroke-addled?" Go fuck yourself. I had a stroke in 2010, and initially had total aphasia; I also couldn't write or type. Over the weekend after the stoke (on Friday), I finished a book on Eliot Spitzer as my mind was still working fine. When I got home on Monday, I completed a complex billing for a Secure Detention Center. I just couldn't speak, write, or type; I certainly wasn't speaking coherently as I couldn't communicate.
During my recovery, I re-learned those skills and made many mistakes, including constantly misnaming my two dogs with the opposite names or names of deceased dogs.
I don't think people understand stokes and aphasia unless they experience or someone they know experiences. I went to the hospital when my husband had a stroke and the medical staff immediately told me to find a nursing home before they had done any tests....and within 3 days he was obviously thinking clearly but the words weren't coming out right. I stayed firm and he recovered with some rehab. A few words here and there got jumbled for a while. Do not ever leave anyone alone in a hospital. Glad you came back strong.
My husband had a stroke a year ago. We were fortunate he was sent to a hospital with a great team to evaluate his needs.
Although Sen. F is much younger than my husband, it was abusive to put the candidate on stage for that debate. His family and team and Party love power more than his needs. Sick. And now they are willing to abandon ship. ‘Guarantee they have Plan B in the works.
When my husband was in the ER and they were asking the typical questions ( What month is it, what day is it, etc. to test his cognitive ability), when they asked him if he knew who the Pres was, he said, “Crooked Joe Biden.” Not only did he know who was the Pres, he knew who Wanted to be Pres. I think.
I was incredibly lucky. Apparently, a golf-ball sized area of my brain is dead, so the connections between thinking and speaking, writing, and typing had to be rewired. I had three months of speech therapy at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, but took and passed their driving certification test just 10 days after my stroke.
How many people would you say there *are* in the world who have *never* had someone in their family who experienced a stroke or aphasia? I'd say it would be very few... you'd have to have a pretty small extended family to not have had someone in your family who had suffered one or both of those.
I am sorry you had to go through such a thing. I've seen a few people, and sincerely hope I don't have to experience it first hand.
While insensitive JD may have been, the point is mildly relevant. Fetterman had a stroke mid-run for a SENATE seat, and the Democratic party accused anybody who questioned whether it was best for him to step aside and heal himself as a bigot or asshole for doing so.
The truth is that he should have stepped aside, the issue for many was... he was running against friggin Doctor OZ FFS. I voted for Erik Gerhardt. But here we are almost 3 years on, and suddenly the left is questioning his mental stability because... He is questioning them. Here is that Democrat Purity test again.
The Democratic party by all right should be dead by now, much like the Republican party should have died as a result of the TEA Party, but here we are.. A nation of abject morons, and we deserver our fate because we are simply too Effing Stupid.
Note the smiely face, there, Cooper - not yelling at you. I get so annoyed when people insist that we should have term limits, but then they just go ahead and vote for the same dimwits, over and over again.
The American public should get what it deserves - good and hard.
What perhaps bothers me most is that I am certain that many senators often believe differently than the party line, but rarely speak out, and even more rarely vote their beliefs.
98% of all DC politicians vote for the beliefs of those that put them in that position and promise them security for their families, and a comfortable "position" after their "service" has ended.
It's amazing to me that nobody questions that these "JOBS" pay roughly 200k per year, and it costs on average about $8M to $20M to even get the job, and then almost all of these people end up $50M+ richer after they are done....
I have always wondered how people that have never been able to balance a budget, have ALL managed to become multimillionaires doing public service. Thanks to DOGE, the answers are coming.
More context on the "Republican party should have died as a result of the TEA Party" please.
As a TEA Party person myself, we were trying to find conservatives, not Republicans, to fill Congress. We had to wait until Trump showed up, but darn, he keeps backing the neocon Republicans.
I read Taibbi's column because he pisses me off but also makes me reexamine what I think. At this point, I'm finding it hard to find firm ground anywhere. I have the feeling that there are a lot of us out here who want decency and consistency and can't find anybody who embodies either. The two parties seem to have a chokehold on the system, and neither appears to give a shit about the country or people other than themselves. So vote, vote, vote, isn't really a solution, is it, unless we find a way to open up the system to people who actually have principles and can stick to them.
As to Fetterman, I'm still wondering if he is mentally unstable, stroke aside. He seems determined to come across as a maverick but has no discernible foundational beliefs to support the positions he takes.
I agree with everything in your first paragraph. I think since about 2012 we have been in the midst of a populist backlash against elite overreach that has long since captured both parties. I also think it's a big mistake to think that the social and political instability and populism started with Trump. As to Fetterman I have no idea what he believes but I gotta admit that I really like how he seems to be totally unafraid.
When you go through what he did, your perspectives change. My husband had a stroke at age 49. It changed him even though outwardly he seemed the same but his outlook on life was quite different. He softened as a person and said he wasn’t afraid to die as he had felt a total peace come over him that night. Perhaps John’s experience has given him a knowledge that to be honest is more important or he doesn’t give a rats patootie what his fellow Dems think anymore. If he has gotten this far from a very bad stroke, I hail him for his courage and tenacity. I wonder if he will someday soon follow another, more fulfilling path for the rest of his life. I hope so.
Yep, I wrote almost the same thing about my experience in another post. Like your husband, I also stopped giving a rats patootie what other people thought. Frankly, it seems almost insane that I cared about that. I cannot know what people think, nor can I control it. Adding that I could do 100 things right, and people only remember the one mistake, why bother? It's a losers game. It would not be surprising to find out that Fetterman has come to same conclusion.
Until it comes time to vote. Then he sticks firmly with the party line regardless of what fearless words he has spoken. All the Dems must know there is someone ready with the hemlock for anyone who breaks ranks.
Totally agree. Trump is a symptom, not a cause. Unfortunately, I think the populist backlash was defeated in the Democratic party. They had their safeguards against "the mob" in place, but the Republicans didn't.
I thought so too and I see your point, but then the dems seem to be stuck dealing with a disturbingly entrenched populist contingent that Obama conjured up in his second term. It will not surprise me if we get AOC in the event that Trump goes the way of Nixon. There is a lot of historical precent for democracies getting swept up in simultaneous left and right wing populist movements--and the track record on recovery is super depressing.
You summed up my feelings. I love to use the "Steeler's Wheel" analogy of clowns and jokers. I worked for government.. In IT.. so I saw too much. I've worked with, not just for... 3 billionaires. I've worked for big Pharma. The world is screwed because too many people are simply idiots that read a headline and then believe they understand the cause.
Our government representatives have ZERO Effs to give about us... the ultimate irony is Hollywood. They actually portray these people truly as they are, and yet still think they care... It's either the height of stupidity, or the depths of psychopathy ...
Voting is the ultimate in stupidity. Elections are predetermined. Only the vetted make it to the ballot. And the vetted are rewarded for making the true rulers more powerful.
But still, there are more of us than them. And I think all of us "idiots" are beginning to understand that the system is not working for anybody but the people in power (on both sides) and their minions in the "press" and the cultural institutions that are sharing the crust. How do we learn to recognize our common interests and ignore the diversions they throw out there to keep us divided and fighting against each other while they continue to prosper?
Sorry.. I am a realist. Some call that negative Nancy... But realists know the truth. The truth is we are Fooked... Life as we know it has maybe 10 years... Those that are following the changes in our planet.. not us moronic humans.. realize this.
Workers - who represent the supermajority in every capitalist country - need to build new political parties that represent our class interests In the US, we then will have to fight like hell to get them on the ballot and into state houses and Congress so we can start dismantling the capitalist oligarchy that is threatening to drive the world towards WWIII.
I don’t think voting is enough either. I know people work, but if we want better we should at least publicly protest in the streets, peacefully! I couldn’t believe the country just let those millions of immigrants come in without protests. But what do I know.
'Fully Batcrap crazy' is not context. I know Obama thought so, but he was the one that got us started while on the campaign trail the first time - throwing out his socialist ideas.
I have no idea what my last comment in this spot was in reference to, but so be it (apologies as the language of it was awful). Michele Bachman ring any bells? Like any political movement in this country you have some smart people who stand for some value and some principle, and then you have the majority of the people that show up to an event.... Most barely even know why they are there except the headlines.
Like everything in this country, the TEA party movement spawned a group of politicians that really.. surprise.. look out for themselves, and frankly had maybe a few marbles of brains between them. Maybe Tim Scott is different?... I guess in some ways Rand Paul would be the ideal TEA Party candidate.
We were attempting to get the party to focus on a more America First agenda, and we were tired of seeing continual tax increases, with nothing to show for it.
I wasn"t paying much attention back then, but my impression has always been that the tea party was founded to control unnecessary spending. in retrospect, seems like a good idea…
Boo you Turd! I I like you, but Boo you on that assessment! You just weren’t ready. My views haven’t changed since then - I just identified that your camp was gonna start chopping their dicks off and insisting they were women.
But, yes there were sone crazies in the Tea Party - but I’d say Constitutionalist government would be a rallying point for most attendees. Not especially crazy, imo, besides everybody’s a little crazy, right?
The parties are still around because the of monied interests that make more money based on their existence. It's also likely they still exist because of the unelected Bureaucracies that need them so they may continue hiding in plain site.
Fetterman was campaigning for the role of United States Senator - a role in which communication is a vital skill. At the time, he could not communicate competently, and it was unclear if that would improve. That was disqualifying even if his mind was sharp. His speech issues also made it impossible to know how well his mind was working. His campaign might have mitigated concerns by demonstrating his mental acuity, but it chose the Joe Biden technique instead, playing "hide the candidate".
Partisans from Eliot Spitzer's party insisted that Fetterman was well-qualified then and is unqualified now. If your concern is truly about the unfair stigmatization of stroke victims, it would make sense to condemn the maligning of the asymptomatic, post-recovery victim much more than it make sense to condemn someone for saying "How can the guy who can't speak do a speaking job?"
Let's be real. The only ability that's required of a U.S. Senator is to press the button to vote. You think Fetterman, who was getting better after a stroke, was any worse than Dianne Feinstein and others, who were wandering into dementia?
No, I wouldn't have voted for him because it wasn't obvious how far he would be able to come back; nor would I have voted for the shyster Mehmet Oz. But I would far rather have Fetterman as my U.S. Senator than either of the two clowns who now represent NY State.
BTW: I've been a registered Republican since I first voted in 1970 for the Conservative Party candidate, James L. Buckley. Charles Goodell, Jr. (father of NFL Commissioner Roger) and Richard Ottinger might as well have run for the CPUSA nomination.
Well it’s understandable for a layperson to conflate inability to speak properly, in a person, who previously had no speech issues, with poor brain function.
So I think you’re being a bit hard on JD Free. ( Apropos of nothing, I hope he’s not a JD Vance fan.)
Your comment relaying your personal experience I actually found quite informative.
( My father had a stroke, and he did not recover well.)
And I happen to think that Senator Fetterman has a lot more courage and independence than almost all other senators.
When my husband was unable to speak after a stroke he made a sign to me that meant "where is breakfast?" which cracked me up sort of and was the first sign that he was going to be ok.
Thanks so much David! I’m just beginning to communicate w/ other stroke survivors and I’m hearing many positive stories of struggles. Seems that many of us have the ironic problem of having our careers, passions and avocations impossibly compromised. You as a data analyst and me - an artist. My handwriting has always been awful, but I’ve making art (respectably) for most of my life, and just winding down work to make more time for painting. We’ll see what I can make of it.
Glad your doing well. I had a series of undiagnosed small stokes, during 2015 and 2016, that made me behave like I had serious PTSD. The docs didn't look at my brain, they just treated me for PTSD. I had no idea why I was behaving that way. I remember wondering how could I have PTSD without the "T", but the trauma was undiagnosed physical damage to my brain.
I look at it now like my brain was an assembled puzzle on a table that got bumped. The pieces were still there, and they were still close to each other, but they needed to be pushed back together again.
One thing I've noticed in myself and in others is that strokes seem to blow away the pretentiousness of life. Whether it's the fear I endured, or something from the actual physical damage, I stopped giving a crap about what other people think. The neighbors can go screw themselves, lol!
You know what they say: "Different strokes for different folks."
Strokes affect people in different ways. That should be obvious as the brain is not a simple thing and strokes are not all created equal. Not everyone can "complete a complex billing for a Secure Detention Center" after a stroke.
if you "could not speak, write or type," how did you "complete" the billing for a secure detention center? Forgive me for asking, but I am curious.
P.S. stroke-addled is not a bad phrase if looking at the word addled and its meanings. It is common with drug users, alcohol users , or folks where their mind has been compromised and it is clear they are in a fog of sorts.
Yes, as I mention below, I took exception to "He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently. . ." as an indictment of Fetterman's ability to think coherently.
For the Billing: I lost my ability to touch-type, so I used hunt-and-peck to type or copy in the necessary numbers into copies of forms that I had previously prepared. I could still handle the computer (gaming) mouse, which was programmed with extra keys to Copy, Paste, and Enter.
The billing involved computing individual bills for the ~20 counties using our Secure Juvenile Detention Facility in Albany, NY, based on how many days each of a county's kids were in the Facility and for how many days. My boss and his secretary had tried working on it for two days and couldn't get it done. It took me six hours, instead of the usual 2-3 hours. I apparently made only one typo, in a county name for the Billing; the individual counties using the Facility varied by month. I did this at home the Monday I got home from the Hospital and emailed the results to work Monday evening. I'd had my stroke the previous Friday.
That's interesting, because my dad had a massive stroke that basically robbed him of the ability to carry on a conversation consisting of anything more than small talk. And even then, he tended to parrot phrases others had just said.
I never had another heart to heart talk with him after his stroke, but I discovered after he passed 20 years later, that he had been writing my mom letters several times a year. The letters were all very well written, totally coherent. Now I wish I'd known about the letters sooner, so we could have communicated with him in writing.
Were your Dad’s letters hand-written or typed? It appears that his cognition was reasonably intact, but his means for expressing himself were severely damaged.
I have to imagine it took him an immense amount of time and effort to form recognizable characters if he were hand writing. Hunt-and-peck typing might have been a little easier, although still frustrating.
Another way of communicating stroke victims with aphasia can use is through pictures. When I was initially in the general ER, I pointed to a picture on the wall with grass to communicate to my wife that the grass needed mowing so she could hire a landscaper. I was very blessed in my recovery by having a wife who was an English major and a licensed School Psychologist with an incredible amount of patience. Dealing with me was probably like handling a very large, angry two-year old. Stoke victims are often frustrated and angry; it just takes so much effort to re-learn the basics. Unfortunately, she died of a hemorrhagic stroke a year later.
Yes, my dad’s letters were all hand written, using a lot of adjectives, as he expressed his love for my mom. They were beautiful. I just wish I had realized that he could communicate in this way.
Fortunately, though his condition continued to deteriorate over 20 years, he was generally pretty sweet. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia. I know that many other dementia patients get cranky, so we were lucky. I can imagine it must be incredibly frustrating, to be unable to express yourself clearly.
You were really blessed in having such a supportive wife. I’m sorry to hear of her passing. My husband passed away 9 years ago, and the first few years were horrible. Best wishes to you and your family.
LOL we have to have *had* a stroke ourselves in order to be permitted by *you* to talk about the effects of strokes on people? How many people would you say there are in the world who have *never* had anyone in their family affected by a stroke? Did the unfortunate occurrence of your stroke magically make you the Dictator of Acceptable Use of the English Language When it Comes to the Subject of Strokes? Best wishes to you and your family with your *continuing* recovery from your stroke.
As to your question, according the the latest version of ChatGPT:
Key facts: Over 12 million strokes occur worldwide each year.
About 1 in 4 adults over age 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime.
The global population is about 8 billion.
Many people have large extended families, especially in regions like Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Stroke is more common in older adults, but most people have at least some older relatives.
Reasonable estimate:
If we assume that:
Each person has a family network of, say, 20–50 people (including extended relatives).
Given stroke’s lifetime prevalence, it's statistically very likely that most families have at least one member who has had a stroke.
Even if we conservatively guess that 5–10% of people worldwide might not have had a known family member suffer a stroke (due to small family size, lack of information, or just rare statistical chance), that would be:
5–10% of 8 billion = 400 million to 800 million people.
So, anywhere from 400 million to 800 million people worldwide might never have had anyone in their family affected by a stroke, but that’s likely a generous upper bound. The actual number is probably much lower given underreporting, lack of awareness, and broad family networks.
Yes, I took exception to "He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently. . ." as an indictment of Fetterman's ability to think coherently. I didn't know his personal medical situation, other than that he'd had a stroke, but his speech was typical of those recovering from aphasia, which I had experienced. He hadn't lost all of his marbles, and quite possibly none of his conceptual thought abilities.
AMEN David! I experienced a stroke 2 months ago and could comprehend everything but couldn't form words- either hand written or typed. My hand writing is still pretty bad, but improving steadily.
Yes, I agree-if you haven't been there, just shut the fuck up!
Best wishes for your recovery. The first 2-3 years are the hardest, but you can make the most progress in that time.
My handwriting is still garbage but it never was very good; I used to print very fast on tests. My typing went from 96 wpm corrected down to ~10. I used a Mavis Beacon program to get it back up to ~66 wpm, which is sufficient for a 77-year old retiree. Typing numbers is back up to full speed, as there are fewer keys and I still function as a data analyst, sometimes having to enter a complete data set to work with it.
You are not wrong. My only caveat would be, the two-party has control on how you get to run. Only someone with tons of $$$ has a chance to break out. Trump had enough to break out AND to fight the horseshit prosecutions against him.
People who have been active in local and state politics have told me that the Democratic Party decides who will be a preferred candidate, then they police other Party politicians to ensure that only that candidate gets endorsed.
The mentally ill leftists call it mental illness when one of their tribe has his own opinions. Independent thinking is frowned upon by Democrats. Cult like behavior. Toe the line or be ostracized. The “big tent” of Democrats is shrinking.
The circular firing squad is reducing their numbers too. That's what the Fetterman hoo hah is about. He needs to get back in line or it's Ready, Aim, Fire!
It's a leftist tradition perfected by the Soviets. Anyone unhappy in the worker's paradise or failing to grasp the wisdom of the Party was clearly insane and in need of "treatment."
I was concerned about JF continuing to run after his stroke for several reasons. One, he was allowed no time to recover but was immediately pushed back into a high stress lifestyle (and his hospitalization early in his term demonstrated the harm). Second, the officer he holds required the ability to understand and produce verbal communication, in which he admitted he was impaired. However, I was soon very impressed with his performance. He shows he is thoughtful and not easily led (which I’m sure contributes to his party’s current attacks). He not only speaks about bipartisan cooperation, he acts. And he has demonstrated that has a conscience. These recent attempts to trash him, after the earlier vigorous defense, ring false.
Even when he couldn't speak coherently after his stroke, if you listened carefully to him, you could tell what he was trying to say, but simply wasn't able to articulate it clearly. His brain was still working fine.
It’s truly incredible to see them publish this, after yeaaaarrrrssss telling voters that Biden was fine *nothing to see here*…. Not a single journalist asked Fettermans Ex-campaign manager if he held a degree in Neuroscience, or was a Doctor. The god damn hypocrisy literally makes my stomach churn!
There’s no freedom there, they are just parroting what George Soros tells them to say. And no one, oh ignorant, one, is telling them that they can’t say it, it’s just a matter of truth in advertising, and identifying political propaganda as political propaganda, not truth or independent opinion.
Nice job identifying yourself as a Democrat dweeb.
“Leesburg and Down” sounds strangely similar to one of those disgusting DC law firms. Did you have to enter your private SCIF to type that pathetic reply? Lol
Yup he got the Kennedy treatment. He dared to think for himself and therefore he must have a brain worm or brain damage from his stroke or isn't taking his meds. It's brutal out there if you cross the path of the blob.
It is the litmus test of whether a group is totalitarian or not -- if an insider or outsider dissents to or questions their leader or group narrative -- how do they respond?
If they shun/smear/punish, it is the classic indicator of totalitarianism. Which is not solely political.
The modern Democratic Party is a paramilitary organization. It's been a loooong time since a McGovern or a Dukakis would eventually emerge as their "leader" from the fog of internal warfare.
It was certainly a factor, but unions were already heavily funding elections, i.e. on profits were already considered “people”. I would be in favor of only individual contributions with caps.
I'd be interested to know what people think changed in America that we have two parties moored only in their own self-preservation. Is there something wrong with us (the people) or with them? Is it the economic system or just the times? What the hell happened?
In the 19th and even early 20th century, politicians sometimes had to leave politics to earn a living for their families. There is so much grift, so much feeding at the public trough by both parties that this is simply no longer the case today. That is why they suppress the emergence of third parties, why they exclude them from debates. That is why elections cost millions and, in the case of the Presidency, now into the billions of dollars. People don't give millions of dollars to someone they don't know for nothing. Patronage is alive and well, if more subtle today. The average American never sees this, which is why there is so much uproar over DOGE. If Americans broadly understood this, well....
Aren't you mixing two separate problems? I agree we have people pouring money into the system to buy political favors. I also agree we have a bloated bureaucracy whose members are supporting one party or the other, with little gained by the public they are supposed to serve. But, my outrage over DOGE is, one, there was no independent oversight of what was being done once Musk's crew got into the government records, and, two, how can you trust Musk to stop government waste when he is one of the biggest individual "feeders at the public trough"? Amazingly, the Department of Defense, which failed, I believe, 7 audits in the past years, is going to get more money than before. It seems to me we just switched one bunch of grifters for another.
I’m not close enough to the process to say whether Musk is running roughshod over the poor federal unionized bureaucrats, but I hope he is.
I trust Musk more than anyone in Washington, and he has accomplished more than all of Congress and their children, many of whom will grow up to be in Congress as well.
As for the trough, I agree he has heavily benefited by the Green scam though, unlike most, he has produced good products and advanced human technology. I’m for doing away with all energy subsidies, and for reducing inefficient regulation.
I think you confuse lack of thought with independent thought. Independent thought is consistent and is "independent" because it is rooted in unshakeable principles and values. I don't think that applies to the trio you name.
I know of no politician with "unshakeable principles and values", not one. To me, independent means a willingness to stand for what one believes and not be prisoner to a particular ideology, culture or political party. My definition does indeed apply to those three individuals, however right or wrong history may judge them to be.
Okay. I think "unshakeable principles and values" and "a willingness to stand for what one believes and not be a prisoner to a particular ideology, culture, or political party" are the same thing, provided that what one believes is rooted in consistent rational thought and not just the result of narcissistic grandstanding. Now, explain to me how Sinema and Kennedy exemplify the former and not the latter. (Gabbard, I confess, puzzles me. The few times I saw her in the past, she struck me as straightforward. I tend to think the shit that the Dems threw at her (Hillary in particular), knocked her off course, but that doesn't excuse the cringe-inducing groveling she's engaging in at those cabinet meetings. I have to think she goes home and takes loooong showers.
Yeah, Gabbard has done quite a 180. But imagine fighting for your country, then serving in Congress and for no reason other than opposing Hillary (which the American people also did in an election), she’s put on a terror watch list! I don’t know, maybe that tweaked her perspective a bit.
To me Synnema is just a moderate with principles, a Blue Dog Democrat. I don’t always agree with her, but I’ve always thought she has integrity.
Kennedy and the Kennedys are more complicated. Read Maureen Callaghan’s recent book “Ask Not” about how the Kennedys treat women, and it makes you sick. He has a point about our terrible diet, but his vaccine theories seem pretty ungrounded to me. Like most lawyers, they are better at arguing than understanding science, finance, energy, etc.
I agree. The way Gabbard was hounded by the Dems was disgraceful, and she was rightfully angry, but now she's supporting people who are doing the same thing to other dissenters. I hoping she'll snap out if it. I thought she had a lot to offer.
Sinema, I don't see her that way, but maybe you're right.
On Kennedy, I'm with you all the way. It's a shame that all the things he's saying about the American diet and the harmful food additives we allow are being ignored because he's the one saying them.
Also used by Victorian gentlemen without a legal divorce option to get rid of the wife for a newer model. All that was required was a bribable doctor in one's circle, signing that the old model wife was "mad".
Although I hasten to add that being a non-feminist woman myself, I must admit that women are equally capable of gaslighting, under different circumstances.
There is a variant of gaslighting in which the target is not accused of mental illness to degrade or humiliate them, but of abuse of some sort. False allegations. And we know that this version is very popular.
How can you be a non-feminist when women are so often forced to gaslight? What other options do we have? I guess being declared mad is better, in your view, than being replaced because your husband no longer has the hots for you but can't say it 'cause. . . you might sue him for breach of contract. A madwoman has no agency. She is, after all, mad.
Bonnie, I was talking about this happening in the Victorian age. Not now.
I'm afraid you sound as if you're another woman who has taken one too many of the gender studies classes. I steered very far clear of them, myself.
I was always too smart to be lured into feminism. I could see what they were doing. It was just another neo-Marxist ideology meant to destroy.
But they couldn't present it that way, could they? Had to be presented as if it was the enlightened, superior, progressive thing to be...😁. Had to engage the vanities! That's the main trick of con-artists everywhere. They certainly do not announce upfront they are intending to dupe you.
Okay, A.A., before you shuttle me off to get lost in Carl Jung, explain how feminism is "just another neo-Marxist ideology meant to destroy." To me, that implies that you think Western civilization was just fine before Marxist criticism of capitalism and before women expanded their role in society beyond wife and mother.
Francesca, my dear.....the world of humanity always has been and always will be imperfect. That is the nature of the game. It is the degree of imperfection that we hope to change.
I would say that since the interjection of modern Marxist feminism, the West has become far more imperfect. Far more problematic. Which was the design for that ideology. By 2025, we normals have all that additional destruction to clean up and attempt to mend.
A., One, any ideology that promotes censorship can be characterized as "mind-capture" (including religion), but that doesn't automatically mean everything it contains is without merit. Two, my reference to Jung was a joking nod to your earlier suggestion of my reading up on Shadow Possession (which I intend to do) and not meant to have anything to do with a discussion of feminism, so there was no jumping to conclusions on my part and a lack of understanding on yours. Three, it seems obvious that DEI thinking would have a natural affinity to feminism since both share a common thread of expanding the social possibilities for people who have been marginalized in the past. The way you make it sound like an unholy, soul-sucking, secret alliance aimed at world domination hints at a touch of paranoia. Four, if deciding for myself whether I wanted to live out my life as a wife and mother and nothing else or whether I wanted equal pay for equal work is being "caught in feminism as a Useful Idiot," I plead guilty (though I would say that it is more a case of common sense than of "having gone astray," which suggests that there is a one, true ideology that must be followed by us all, regardless of our personal preferences and ambitions). And, really, asking someone to clarify what they mean or to expand upon a comment doesn't make one a "detractor," unless you are accustomed to total, unquestioning acceptance of whatever you say. If you are, I suggest you start carving your comments in stone, as is the custom.
The total unquestioning acceptance of what others say is more the approach of women who are feminists, rather than women such as myself who tread an independent path not only towards higher education.....but marriage and motherhood too.
I am the one who bravely took the path less travelled, as an educated woman who speaks out against feminism.
Feminism has been full of sheep. I am not one of them. Thank God.
"The way you make it sound like an unholy, soul-sucking, secret alliance aimed at world domination hints at a touch of paranoia."
No, Francesca. You appear not to have the background that I do. I could give you a grad program bibliography to read....but why would I bother? You do not want to be enlightened about this. It would lose you your supportive herd.
I know by now that people caught in these mind traps must want to escape, and be willing to face facts. That is seldom the case with long-term feminists. Especially if they themselves have caused destruction in the lives of others due to these beliefs. It would take moral courage to face this.
Honestly, I went to grad school, too, and thought that many of the papers I read were suitable for mulch and little else. Get off your high horse and learn to accept that people choose their life paths for a multitude of reasons (often unrecognized by themselves), some good, some bad, and yours is not the only way to go. Though your need to denigrate the lives of others should give you a clue that you might not be as satisfied as you think.
"One, any ideology that promotes censorship can be characterized as "mind-capture" (including religion), but that doesn't automatically mean everything it contains is without merit. "
No. You are failing to grasp what mind-capture actually is. It is what we see in delusional cult followers, in the all-believing COVID-maniacs, in mobs gone mad, in the Germans of the 1930s. It is a strongly detrimental social/group contagion which happens under specific circumstances.
And the word "censorship" as you use it may be applied as an action to anything the WOKE leftwing does not like. Anything at all. The word itself has been degraded. The WOKE simply censor whatever disagrees with their totalitarian group narrative.
Religion, I will add, has categories here. There is religion that practices homeostasis (most mainstream Judeo-Christianity) and religion that has gone to polar extremes so that they become totalitarian. THAT is the difference.
"Three, it seems obvious that DEI thinking would have a natural affinity to feminism since both share a common thread of expanding the social possibilities for people who have been marginalized in the past."
What you must understand is that WOKE (and its handmaiden DEI)....is a form of totalitarianism. It is NOT the supposedly noble expanding of social possibilities for the marginalized. That is simply the smokescreen. Which the masses of Useful Idiots are blinded by. It is ever thus. This blinding is a basis of the mind-capture.
Unless you understand the Dupe involved....you will never see past it. It is as if you decided to allow yourself to be lured into one of those presentations in hotel conference rooms on considering the purchase of time-shares in Florida. They make it all sound lovely and enticing to the punters. It's the way the manipulation game is played.
They gotcha! You bought not Florida time-shares....but feminism. Oh, dear.....
He has/d aphasia. It is a speech and language disruption, following stroke in the areas of the brain that control speech and language. Look it up people. Clearly, he worked incredibly hard to recover from it, and people can get depressed at feeling alienated by their difficulty communicating. Maybe the NYT should call and talk to the American Speech Language and Hearing Association or the Aphasiology Association. This is a disorder that’s been known to mankind as long as man has been around. But that would be doing their homework being responsible and that’s something that’s just beyond the scope of the New York Times these days.
They don't seriously believe he's got mental health issues. They are simply beginning the process of getting rid of a free thinker who they thought was in the bag for their leftist insanity.
When he was recovering from his stroke, I spent some time listening carefully to his speeches and interviews. Despite the language difficulties, you could still see he was smart underneath, just struggling to articulate.
Which is the challenge of aphasia- it impacts the communication routes, not the underlying intellectual or cognitive abilities. Of course there are different types and severities depending on extent and location of brain involvement. It’s been great to see him recover.
Waving the Israeli flag from the rooftop of his Batman-villian warehouse home was cool and normal, but considering voting for Pete Hegseth is clear indication of a mental health crisis.
Actually the pro-Pali wing of the Dem party (i.e. most of it) didn't like it at all. I didn't worry about whether it was "normal" but I thought it was definitely cool.
So considering voting for Hegseth warrants serious condideration of brain damage.
When or where was there ever this type of analysis of Biden before the debate debacle? In his case, even speculating about his mental status was considered a step short of treason.
Looks like political "asylums" might not be far away.
The Dems have no problem with a U.S. Senator wearing a hoodie and short pants everywhere he goes, as if that’s suddenly normal and accepted for someone in his position. But thinking any independent, non-DNC thoughts is a deal-breaker for the Dems when they’re that close to 50/50 in the Senate. Interesting but not at all surprising. It’s as dishonest as the news coverage of it!
Ha! Great observation! Just like they had no problem with a recovering stroke victim taking the stage for a televised debate (the now Senator), just like they had no problem with a senile and impaired POTUS taking the stage for a televised debate, just like they have no problem with —- the list of cruelties is endless.
He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently and they described criticism of his mental state as bigotry. Now he’s declining to participate in their deluded hysteria and they’re insisting he’s losing his mind.
In a party of retards the stroked-out man is king.
or....... the one in charge of the lobotomized man's autopen is king.
Love this!!
Really lovely. Yet another troglodyte that considers the use of "retard" as a "great cultural victory." I'm sure all those parents with developmentally disabled children that they love are applauding your "courage." Fuck off.
Really lovely. Yet another keyboard warrior that considers the use of "fuck off" as a "great cultural victory." I'm sure all those people with the social skills not to curse out a total stranger are applauding your "courage." Have a nice day.
This "keyboard warrior" uses her full name, Mike, unlike you. And "fuck off" is not a great cultural victory but a suitable reply to somebody who lacks any "sensibility to the inner feelings and whole inner significance of lives that are different from our own" (to quote William James). Why waste social skills on those who have none?
Francesca have you met Karen?
No, but I've met bullies and cowards before.
You should. I think you two would have a lot in common.
Use your fingers, so you can count, William. It would be three. And "bullies and cowards" usually refers to people who pick on those who are weaker than themselves or less in number. Neither applies here, does it?
🥂
Sorry, William, but I'm literate and don't resort to emojis. What the hell does that mean?
Loder is right you ARE karen when did you change your moniker?
I was going with "'tard fight" ...
Nobody does Fuck Offs like Ricky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7zbdwSFrKI
Correction: "*a* full name", which doesn't necessarily mean "*her* full name".
Lighten up Frances
I don’t think retards are reading here, but some self righteous, long winded saviors are hoping we read their tomes.
Maybe replace "Party of Retards" with "Party of Condescending Elitists"...
First of all, bub, my name is Francesca, not Frances (surprise, surprise, we're not all of Anglo heritage and would like to be addressed in a way that recognizes that fact!). Second, I was lucky enough to happen to work with the community of developmentally disabled folks (only because that was the only job available in my area at the time, not by "charitable" intention), and I was surprised to find out that some individuals in the developmentally disabled community are aware of the contempt embedded in the term "retard" when it is used by supposedly (and I emphasize the word "supposedly" developmentally abled individuals), and IT HURTS THEIR FEELINGS. Now, if you have the social skills that Mikey pretended you have, then you don't want to unintentionally hurt people, right? Even if they don't happen to be present, right? So take the time, and that unimpaired brain that you were lucky enough to draw at birth, and find a new fucking word!
From my reading of Yuri's post, I think he was probably referring to Democrats as retarded. I was you, FRANCESCA, who immediately associated the offending term with the developmentally disabled community, which is truly offensive. Intent matters.
Completely agree, francis is an emotionally triggered individual who sorely needs a safe space. It was in fact she who made tge corrosi
The corrosive association between the comment about the left/ democrats and handicapped people. Says a lot.
Badnabor, using a term that references a group of people as a pejorative is commonly considered a sign of ignorance. In this case, where it references a group of people who can't fight back, it is cowardly as well as ignorant. Now, if you belong to that group of people who confuse ignorance with being cool,
Assuming retards can't fight back?
So you're an avowed ableist.
South Park Ready
The same could be said about your use of expletives. The group of ignoramuses would include YOU. I know going in, now that I have read your unhinged commentary, that it is a waste of anyone's time spent attempting to use reason to point out the flaws in your position. Labeling a Democrat, or even you, as a "retard", in this case, is only directed at a specific target and pointing out that, in the opinion of the writer, the target's actions suggest that of less than ideal cognitive function. Your insistence that it references and is offensive to any others is without merit. In your obvious zeal, to signal your virtue, YOU have twisted and turned the slur, aimed at another, towards the very group that you claim to defend.
Far more importantly, she's obviously never seen "Stripes," which may be the worst sin of all.
Yep Yep Yep
And if she did hear the entire conversation that inspired the line, somewhat flawed memory here, but roughly "And if any of you homos call me Francis, I kill you" might be a bit too much.
I do use the "Lighten up Francis" line to defuse many a tense argument! Probably not going to work here.
Bill Murray films are good for the soul.
Me thinks "Francesca" may really be a Jesse Ventura behind the keyboard. At least that is what it sounds like..LOL
Testy?
Ignorant?
To quote Inigo in The Princess Bride, "you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Another classic....
St. Francesca of a Sissy, how many in your community of disabled folks read these comments?
Because the term was labelled "hurtful" by the hothouse flowers that control our schools, "retarded" was replaced with the euphemism you use. Do you prefer "insane"? I think that term ought to make a comeback. Like it or not, "retard" is an insult aimed at stupid people with unimpaired faculties, so you'd better get used to it. Tom Segura has a pretty good comedy routine about the evolution of the word. You should watch it. (P.S./Edit): Louis CK has a great routine about the use of "retarded" as well. His pronouncing it in a Boston accent, "Retaaaaahded" is a riot. https://youtu.be/qALqXrAS9Ug?t=159
Fetterman deserves the epithet, since he lucked into becoming a public figure, getting elected after having a stroke, which is one of the most absurdly funny events of my lifetime. It says more about his party and the electorate than it does about him. Despite his condition, he seems to have gained some sanity regarding his politics. The real offense to propriety is the fact that he was elected to office in the first place.
Bwahahahahahaha!
"Lighten up, Francis" is a line from a film, used to tease pompous online scolds.
I've been teased about all sorts of things, since I was about 8 years old, and I learned that life goes on.
One of my all time favorite movie quotes. May "Stripes" long be remembered and celebrated for its wisdom.
Sometimes we all need to listen to a big toe for words of wisdom.
Thank you, Uncle Hulka !!!!
Triggered poor Francesca for twisting a movie line referring to a male character named Francis. “But everybody calls me “Psycho”
You're the lady instigator on the subway, the one who wouldn't let a guy wear his Maga hat in peace, then you went splat on the platform trying to chase him down. TDS is strong in you.
hello im on the spectrum and retard is probably one of my most used words
Props
no props necessary, being afraid of words is retarded
"The Stupids Step Out," by Harry Allard, is one of my favorite children’s books. I read it to my children and grandchildren, who thought it hilarious. I still refer to it in my old age whenever I do something stupid (often!).
not familiar with it but i will check it out!
Seriously a “word” sets you off
Just crawl back into your safe space and marvel at your participation trophies
I'm so over the importance of word police. It has proven to be a seriously f'd up control experiment. Words and their weight are open to interpretation. When someone says mentally challenged we understand that the correct word used to be retardation.
And we don't use either as a pejorative unless we are ignorant, right?
To all of you who belong to the "I can say whatever I want" crowd, grow a spine and get used to being called out for saying cruel and ignorant crap that you should have left behind in kindergarten. Free speech begets free speech.
You have a serious problem with boundaries. You need to get used to the fact that no one gives a flying fuck about your etiquette issues. We fully understand that they are your personal issues. Who do you think you are? I would suggest by your comments that you are greatly misinformed about your self importance and the power it has on others. If you are so fragile that you absolutely lose your shit because of a word then accept when you get called out for your idiocy. Grow the fuck up. Free speech begets free speech.
Look, she's retarded.
Show some sympathy.
This is speech-policing, which eventuates in the destruction of the 1st Amendment; to be fair, Trump & Zionist-dependent Republicans are also enthusiastically destroying thr 1st Amendment..
Not everyone prescribes to your cult. It's your right to do so. Just know that we see it for what it is. Have yourself a lovely time. Say what you wish whenever or wherever you wish, but don't expect to do it at the expense of others. Don't convince yourself that we must believe you are correct or even that you own an original thought when all you do is repeat propaganda.
My like button doesn't work, so "like".
Unclear if thats directed to me. "Speech policing" is when people attempt to proscribe terms or vocabulary. It comes from the left and the right.
Also don't understand "don't expect to do it at the expense of others" ... like,.what expense? What do I owe you?
I thought there were no boundaries with free speechers. Or is it just you who gets to set them? Not engaging in the pack mentality that characterizes so many of the comments above is not a sign of self-importance but individualism, I think. And, if anyone is "losing their shit," I'd say it is you.
No one here has policed you. "And we don't use either as a pejorative unless we are ignorant, right?" This is YOU engaging in pack or more accurately cult mentality. You have been convinced that you know better and you hold some sense of authority over others. You may speak your mind and think your thoughts, but boundaries prevent you from telling others how they are allowed to speak or think. That is the boundary you have been lead to believe doesn't apply to you. You insinuate that others must follow your personal wishes and if they don't they are less than or ignorant. That's not a world view anyone else must accept. You yourself regularly engage in name calling and passive aggressive jabs and insults. Someone has convinced you that being a bossy jerk is a virtue with some higher calling and that it's in the name of protecting others. It's not. You're just a bossy jerk at the end of the day. I don't give a hoot if you believe me or not. That's your prerogative. But understand that if you overstep your place in the world someone else has the right to knock your dumb ass back into your own space. Welcome to the real America.
https://tuna.voicemod.net/sound/7f101824-2392-4117-bc50-acc311c68ea8
"Testi" is the right name for you lol
Thanks, Mom.
People who are triggered by words sacrifice their personal power at the altar of victimhood. Moreover, those who are triggered in the cause of protecting others are narcissists. We just get out what we carry in!
Troglodyte is offensive. (So easy a caveman can do it)
Francesca, it was beneficial to your awareness that you had no other opportunity for work than to serve the needs of the de
Yeah, I thought so to. It certainly was the only job I ever did that seemed to have a real purpose. It also opened my eyes to how damned thoughtless and cruel we can be to people who don't have the power to defend themselves.
That was a very revealing comment.
Mine or Francesca’s?
Francesca's.
I'm sorry; did I reply to the wrong post?
I get so confused on these long threads.
Actually, your comment is also interesting, for a much deeper reason.
Her comment sought to assure us that she didn't go looking for a job working with developmentally disabled people (as if there were something wrong with that, which there is not).
Your comment is much more significant, because you seem to be acknowledging that there is a reason for everything, and the fact that no other jobs were available forced her into a position in which her soul could awaken.
Apologies if I'm wrong, but that's really a beautiful observation.
Me too, BookWench! these long threads can be confusing, and you did pick up on what I intended with my comment to Francesca. Thank you for your first response and for your reply to my question.
Are you also opposed to using "idiot" and "moron" as pejoratives? Like "retard," these were once clinical terms. Also, like "retard," they are no longer used in that context.
What's the difference?
Oh, shut up, you retard.
Reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trljmnV6blE
"What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
So, re "developmentally disabled children" -
I don't think you can say that anymore, you have to say "neuro-diverse."
Also, the main determinants of ASD are these HUGE, multistage vaccine schedules, where children are given 75 shots before they are 10 yo.
ASD correlates to multiple vaccinations, especially when more than one is administered and the younger, the more injurious.
This will be borne out by further statistical studies very soon.
This politically correct bullshit has been going on for so long... it's so tiring. They keep on evolving their politically correct terminology decade after decade until no one knows what the hell they're trying to describe any more. This nonsense was called out way back when they declared "disabled" to be a pejorative and replaced it with "differently abled" - *as if* being paralyzed from the neck down actually meant that *actually disabled people* in woke bizarro world were in possession of some kind of "super-power"... From that time on, the self-appointed woke warriors have been on the march, trying to impose their cracked worldview on the rational people of the world - and succeeding to a horrifying degree. I am very glad that people are pushing back against this truly retarded nonsense today.
Oh please.
I like the use of the phrase - I use it slightly different - "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". Thank you!
I'm sure that there are people/groups who find the word "blind" offensive. They'd probably prefer something like "differently sighted." The "allowed" nomenclature changes constantly.
yeah, but that's retarded ...
LOL!!
Maybe it's "visually disabled"?
"Visually limited"?
Who knows?
Like the man with one eye in a kingdom of the blind!!
Stigmatizing mental illness or incapacity is Very Problematic for the In This House We Believe yard-sign crew until it can be used to burn a heretic at the stake. Then it’s good. Necessary and obvious, in fact.
These transparent about-faces keep readers in the cult, forcing them to disown their own sincerely held beliefs from just last week to maintain the party line. They become trained to wait for the next official opinion to be transmitted to them, since the constantly shifting party line leaves them uncertain whether any original thought they had would be acceptable.
Like gay-bashing, except when NYT publishes cartoons of Trump kissing Putin.
Ironic huh? Kissing Putin is the very least of depictions there. They simply can't see their hypocrisy. It's like Baptist Ministers....
What an appropriate first name! You know NOTHING about most Baptist ministers!
Southern Baptist leaders release a previously secret list of accused sexual abusers
May 27, 202211:08 AM ET
By The Associated Press
In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse.
The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019.
Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability.
Now, I'm not saying this is "most" Baptist ministers, but you have to admit, it includes way too many. And, it should never have been a "secret list".
FYI in 2024 there were 46,876 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention. My fairly small church has three pastor/elders, all of whom preach and teach. You do the math. Although 700 is way too many, it is a small fraction of the pastors in the SBC. Pastors are human beings and human beings are sinners. You really shouldn't have been so quick to come up with this report. You know what He said about casting the first stone, don't you? John 8:7 - He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
That's good advice.
Secularists have no future, no salvation, no redemption, thus no reason to live, so they call believers idiots and call wisdom literature fairy tales and try to steal your joy. Be glad, give thanks, rejoice!
The beat sinners around at the moment are secular Democrats, although plenty of Republicans are close behind..
Well, maybe they went to the Catholic Church & got Absolution.
Umm... Spent the first 30 years of my life around them. It's the reason I turned Agnostic. Father is from the Shenandoah, first wife's family was born again. Sure, I paint with a broad stroke brush, and certainly it is covering (in my hopeful optimism) the majority that are decent, honorable people, but then talk to me about Jerry Falwell, or my cousin Joel....
Too many are grifters like politicians. Also, I should have just said Christian... That way I could cover more ground.
Also to note. Often times our opinions are based on our own personal experiences. I am glad yours have always been positive.
Personal experiences and other people have much less to do with salvation and belief than conviction of one's own sin. Obviously, there are false characters who claim to bring the Gospel. That is ALWAYS the way it's been. If you prefer to let the false prophets dissuade you from belief rather than believe God's Word which is alive and cuts through the garbage to the depths of your being, then that is on you. God IS, and He provides the grace that all of His people need to believe unto salvation. No matter what negative influence people have on your heart, Jesus Christ suffered a grotesque death to save YOU from damnation, and He's alive to prove it. All it takes is you asking him to have mercy on you, a poor sinner.
Or... The Bible is a great book written and edited by men looking to dominate others, and enrich themselves. It's highly possible and far more likely that Jesus was a great philosopher, who garnered followers just like today's "Issues" garner followers, and that unlike today when you are just doxxed, and shadow banned, then you were executed... Those types of things still do happen in the regions Jesus once wandered.
Moses was a great way to teach children about a simple moral code to follow. If you truly read the history and the book itself, it becomes very easy to see other possibilities. Sorry, I don't meet your standards, but I have to walk my own path, and if I'm wrong... I'm wrong... I can eternally live with that decision... Maybe it's the Buddhists who are right and I'll come back as a dung beetle.
Yeah! Maybe, maybe, maybe. But you're right; you WILL eternally live with that decision. My standards? I was just the messenger. You have no bones to pick with me. I'm in the same boat as you are but we have different destinations. Your path (oops, I'm mixing my metaphors) looks very wide and inviting, characterized by all of your free choices, but you can step off onto the straight path any time. Yes, it's more constrictive, more narrow but it will get you safely to the better place.
Or Colbert with "Trump is Putin's cock-holster". See, that's OK, cause Trump ...
We don’t use the word “heretic” enough. Very descriptive of the Dem way of thinking these days. Don’t tell them. They will want to ban it.
I completely agree! It is so like the same revisionist tendencies in Russia after the communist revolution succeeded. History was changed in accordance with each new program for how things would be done from then on, and heroes in previous accounts could become officially scum in later versions of the state narrative.
The narrative is fluid. It is the power of predator over chosen prey that counts.
Just like in the old Soviet Union where one had to every morning listen/read state-run media to find out what "was in, what was out."
That's "stroke-addled?" Go fuck yourself. I had a stroke in 2010, and initially had total aphasia; I also couldn't write or type. Over the weekend after the stoke (on Friday), I finished a book on Eliot Spitzer as my mind was still working fine. When I got home on Monday, I completed a complex billing for a Secure Detention Center. I just couldn't speak, write, or type; I certainly wasn't speaking coherently as I couldn't communicate.
During my recovery, I re-learned those skills and made many mistakes, including constantly misnaming my two dogs with the opposite names or names of deceased dogs.
If you haven't been there, just shut the fuck up.
I don't think people understand stokes and aphasia unless they experience or someone they know experiences. I went to the hospital when my husband had a stroke and the medical staff immediately told me to find a nursing home before they had done any tests....and within 3 days he was obviously thinking clearly but the words weren't coming out right. I stayed firm and he recovered with some rehab. A few words here and there got jumbled for a while. Do not ever leave anyone alone in a hospital. Glad you came back strong.
My husband had a stroke a year ago. We were fortunate he was sent to a hospital with a great team to evaluate his needs.
Although Sen. F is much younger than my husband, it was abusive to put the candidate on stage for that debate. His family and team and Party love power more than his needs. Sick. And now they are willing to abandon ship. ‘Guarantee they have Plan B in the works.
When my husband was in the ER and they were asking the typical questions ( What month is it, what day is it, etc. to test his cognitive ability), when they asked him if he knew who the Pres was, he said, “Crooked Joe Biden.” Not only did he know who was the Pres, he knew who Wanted to be Pres. I think.
It wouldn’t be a surprise. I agree about the debate.
I was incredibly lucky. Apparently, a golf-ball sized area of my brain is dead, so the connections between thinking and speaking, writing, and typing had to be rewired. I had three months of speech therapy at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital, but took and passed their driving certification test just 10 days after my stroke.
That's awesome!
Our brains do possess the ability to rewire connections, so I'm glad it all worked out for you.
How many people would you say there *are* in the world who have *never* had someone in their family who experienced a stroke or aphasia? I'd say it would be very few... you'd have to have a pretty small extended family to not have had someone in your family who had suffered one or both of those.
Do not ever leave anyone alone in a hospital.
I think of the insights concerning stroke of Dr. Edward Taub, Behavioural Neuroscientist.
I am sorry you had to go through such a thing. I've seen a few people, and sincerely hope I don't have to experience it first hand.
While insensitive JD may have been, the point is mildly relevant. Fetterman had a stroke mid-run for a SENATE seat, and the Democratic party accused anybody who questioned whether it was best for him to step aside and heal himself as a bigot or asshole for doing so.
The truth is that he should have stepped aside, the issue for many was... he was running against friggin Doctor OZ FFS. I voted for Erik Gerhardt. But here we are almost 3 years on, and suddenly the left is questioning his mental stability because... He is questioning them. Here is that Democrat Purity test again.
The Democratic party by all right should be dead by now, much like the Republican party should have died as a result of the TEA Party, but here we are.. A nation of abject morons, and we deserver our fate because we are simply too Effing Stupid.
I think the majority of Americans are very decent people. We happen to be run by vile people, from both sides.
I really do think we deserve better.
THEN GET OUT THERE AND VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!! :-)
Note the smiely face, there, Cooper - not yelling at you. I get so annoyed when people insist that we should have term limits, but then they just go ahead and vote for the same dimwits, over and over again.
The American public should get what it deserves - good and hard.
No offense taken- thanks!
What perhaps bothers me most is that I am certain that many senators often believe differently than the party line, but rarely speak out, and even more rarely vote their beliefs.
98% of all DC politicians vote for the beliefs of those that put them in that position and promise them security for their families, and a comfortable "position" after their "service" has ended.
It's amazing to me that nobody questions that these "JOBS" pay roughly 200k per year, and it costs on average about $8M to $20M to even get the job, and then almost all of these people end up $50M+ richer after they are done....
Indeed. I noticed that. 🤔🤔
I have always wondered how people that have never been able to balance a budget, have ALL managed to become multimillionaires doing public service. Thanks to DOGE, the answers are coming.
You always get the government you deserve.
More context on the "Republican party should have died as a result of the TEA Party" please.
As a TEA Party person myself, we were trying to find conservatives, not Republicans, to fill Congress. We had to wait until Trump showed up, but darn, he keeps backing the neocon Republicans.
Please take this with all the love in the world. The Majority of the TEA party was fully Batcrap crazy, much like today's woke Left.
I read Taibbi's column because he pisses me off but also makes me reexamine what I think. At this point, I'm finding it hard to find firm ground anywhere. I have the feeling that there are a lot of us out here who want decency and consistency and can't find anybody who embodies either. The two parties seem to have a chokehold on the system, and neither appears to give a shit about the country or people other than themselves. So vote, vote, vote, isn't really a solution, is it, unless we find a way to open up the system to people who actually have principles and can stick to them.
As to Fetterman, I'm still wondering if he is mentally unstable, stroke aside. He seems determined to come across as a maverick but has no discernible foundational beliefs to support the positions he takes.
I agree with everything in your first paragraph. I think since about 2012 we have been in the midst of a populist backlash against elite overreach that has long since captured both parties. I also think it's a big mistake to think that the social and political instability and populism started with Trump. As to Fetterman I have no idea what he believes but I gotta admit that I really like how he seems to be totally unafraid.
When you go through what he did, your perspectives change. My husband had a stroke at age 49. It changed him even though outwardly he seemed the same but his outlook on life was quite different. He softened as a person and said he wasn’t afraid to die as he had felt a total peace come over him that night. Perhaps John’s experience has given him a knowledge that to be honest is more important or he doesn’t give a rats patootie what his fellow Dems think anymore. If he has gotten this far from a very bad stroke, I hail him for his courage and tenacity. I wonder if he will someday soon follow another, more fulfilling path for the rest of his life. I hope so.
Yep, I wrote almost the same thing about my experience in another post. Like your husband, I also stopped giving a rats patootie what other people thought. Frankly, it seems almost insane that I cared about that. I cannot know what people think, nor can I control it. Adding that I could do 100 things right, and people only remember the one mistake, why bother? It's a losers game. It would not be surprising to find out that Fetterman has come to same conclusion.
Exactly. Peace, Ollo.
Until it comes time to vote. Then he sticks firmly with the party line regardless of what fearless words he has spoken. All the Dems must know there is someone ready with the hemlock for anyone who breaks ranks.
Totally agree. Trump is a symptom, not a cause. Unfortunately, I think the populist backlash was defeated in the Democratic party. They had their safeguards against "the mob" in place, but the Republicans didn't.
I thought so too and I see your point, but then the dems seem to be stuck dealing with a disturbingly entrenched populist contingent that Obama conjured up in his second term. It will not surprise me if we get AOC in the event that Trump goes the way of Nixon. There is a lot of historical precent for democracies getting swept up in simultaneous left and right wing populist movements--and the track record on recovery is super depressing.
You summed up my feelings. I love to use the "Steeler's Wheel" analogy of clowns and jokers. I worked for government.. In IT.. so I saw too much. I've worked with, not just for... 3 billionaires. I've worked for big Pharma. The world is screwed because too many people are simply idiots that read a headline and then believe they understand the cause.
Our government representatives have ZERO Effs to give about us... the ultimate irony is Hollywood. They actually portray these people truly as they are, and yet still think they care... It's either the height of stupidity, or the depths of psychopathy ...
Voting is the ultimate in stupidity. Elections are predetermined. Only the vetted make it to the ballot. And the vetted are rewarded for making the true rulers more powerful.
But still, there are more of us than them. And I think all of us "idiots" are beginning to understand that the system is not working for anybody but the people in power (on both sides) and their minions in the "press" and the cultural institutions that are sharing the crust. How do we learn to recognize our common interests and ignore the diversions they throw out there to keep us divided and fighting against each other while they continue to prosper?
You ask the unanswerable question.....
That's pretty discouraging coming from an IT person.
Sorry.. I am a realist. Some call that negative Nancy... But realists know the truth. The truth is we are Fooked... Life as we know it has maybe 10 years... Those that are following the changes in our planet.. not us moronic humans.. realize this.
Workers - who represent the supermajority in every capitalist country - need to build new political parties that represent our class interests In the US, we then will have to fight like hell to get them on the ballot and into state houses and Congress so we can start dismantling the capitalist oligarchy that is threatening to drive the world towards WWIII.
I don’t think voting is enough either. I know people work, but if we want better we should at least publicly protest in the streets, peacefully! I couldn’t believe the country just let those millions of immigrants come in without protests. But what do I know.
I became a bit leery of protests after the Summer of Love, and especially after seeing what happened to the J6 defendants.
I did go to a couple of protests against the Covid lockdowns, during Trump's first term, but I'm not so sure I would go to any more protests.
I can't run as fast as I used to, if it all heads south.
See Britain. And what happened in local elections this week.
Drove a road through the traditional two-party system.
Now see whether you can detect the relevant patterns there.
Thanks for the advice. I'll go look at it and hope for some inspiration.
Good points, all
'Fully Batcrap crazy' is not context. I know Obama thought so, but he was the one that got us started while on the campaign trail the first time - throwing out his socialist ideas.
I have no idea what my last comment in this spot was in reference to, but so be it (apologies as the language of it was awful). Michele Bachman ring any bells? Like any political movement in this country you have some smart people who stand for some value and some principle, and then you have the majority of the people that show up to an event.... Most barely even know why they are there except the headlines.
Like everything in this country, the TEA party movement spawned a group of politicians that really.. surprise.. look out for themselves, and frankly had maybe a few marbles of brains between them. Maybe Tim Scott is different?... I guess in some ways Rand Paul would be the ideal TEA Party candidate.
Don't all politicians look out for themselves?
I'm stretching to remember here but pretty sure I was a Michele Bachman fan. Was that good or bad?
Your observation still lacks context. Just as unaccepting as what Turd? I have values and principles and neither contemplates socialism.
We were not!
We were attempting to get the party to focus on a more America First agenda, and we were tired of seeing continual tax increases, with nothing to show for it.
There is nothing crazy about that.
I wasn"t paying much attention back then, but my impression has always been that the tea party was founded to control unnecessary spending. in retrospect, seems like a good idea…
Boo you Turd! I I like you, but Boo you on that assessment! You just weren’t ready. My views haven’t changed since then - I just identified that your camp was gonna start chopping their dicks off and insisting they were women.
I am sorry.. The TEA party is different from the Woke crowd, but no less delusional and stupid.
Found that meme: https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/lgtjaf/booing_intensifies/?rdt=63965
But, yes there were sone crazies in the Tea Party - but I’d say Constitutionalist government would be a rallying point for most attendees. Not especially crazy, imo, besides everybody’s a little crazy, right?
BOO YOU MAN BOO! lol.
Have you seen that meme that’s like my personal soundtrack:
(Studio audience) “BOO!”
The parties may still be around because of their death grip on power!
The parties are still around because the of monied interests that make more money based on their existence. It's also likely they still exist because of the unelected Bureaucracies that need them so they may continue hiding in plain site.
Again, I can't like but agree 100%
Fetterman was campaigning for the role of United States Senator - a role in which communication is a vital skill. At the time, he could not communicate competently, and it was unclear if that would improve. That was disqualifying even if his mind was sharp. His speech issues also made it impossible to know how well his mind was working. His campaign might have mitigated concerns by demonstrating his mental acuity, but it chose the Joe Biden technique instead, playing "hide the candidate".
Partisans from Eliot Spitzer's party insisted that Fetterman was well-qualified then and is unqualified now. If your concern is truly about the unfair stigmatization of stroke victims, it would make sense to condemn the maligning of the asymptomatic, post-recovery victim much more than it make sense to condemn someone for saying "How can the guy who can't speak do a speaking job?"
Let's be real. The only ability that's required of a U.S. Senator is to press the button to vote. You think Fetterman, who was getting better after a stroke, was any worse than Dianne Feinstein and others, who were wandering into dementia?
No, I wouldn't have voted for him because it wasn't obvious how far he would be able to come back; nor would I have voted for the shyster Mehmet Oz. But I would far rather have Fetterman as my U.S. Senator than either of the two clowns who now represent NY State.
BTW: I've been a registered Republican since I first voted in 1970 for the Conservative Party candidate, James L. Buckley. Charles Goodell, Jr. (father of NFL Commissioner Roger) and Richard Ottinger might as well have run for the CPUSA nomination.
Well it’s understandable for a layperson to conflate inability to speak properly, in a person, who previously had no speech issues, with poor brain function.
So I think you’re being a bit hard on JD Free. ( Apropos of nothing, I hope he’s not a JD Vance fan.)
Your comment relaying your personal experience I actually found quite informative.
( My father had a stroke, and he did not recover well.)
And I happen to think that Senator Fetterman has a lot more courage and independence than almost all other senators.
When my husband was unable to speak after a stroke he made a sign to me that meant "where is breakfast?" which cracked me up sort of and was the first sign that he was going to be ok.
Let’s not get swept up in the moment….,
Thanks so much David! I’m just beginning to communicate w/ other stroke survivors and I’m hearing many positive stories of struggles. Seems that many of us have the ironic problem of having our careers, passions and avocations impossibly compromised. You as a data analyst and me - an artist. My handwriting has always been awful, but I’ve making art (respectably) for most of my life, and just winding down work to make more time for painting. We’ll see what I can make of it.
Keep on truckin’!
Kate
Glad your doing well. I had a series of undiagnosed small stokes, during 2015 and 2016, that made me behave like I had serious PTSD. The docs didn't look at my brain, they just treated me for PTSD. I had no idea why I was behaving that way. I remember wondering how could I have PTSD without the "T", but the trauma was undiagnosed physical damage to my brain.
I look at it now like my brain was an assembled puzzle on a table that got bumped. The pieces were still there, and they were still close to each other, but they needed to be pushed back together again.
One thing I've noticed in myself and in others is that strokes seem to blow away the pretentiousness of life. Whether it's the fear I endured, or something from the actual physical damage, I stopped giving a crap about what other people think. The neighbors can go screw themselves, lol!
You know what they say: "Different strokes for different folks."
Strokes affect people in different ways. That should be obvious as the brain is not a simple thing and strokes are not all created equal. Not everyone can "complete a complex billing for a Secure Detention Center" after a stroke.
It's tone-deafness as an art form, isn't it? (To be polite about it, anyway...)
curious David, re your complex billing story,
if you "could not speak, write or type," how did you "complete" the billing for a secure detention center? Forgive me for asking, but I am curious.
P.S. stroke-addled is not a bad phrase if looking at the word addled and its meanings. It is common with drug users, alcohol users , or folks where their mind has been compromised and it is clear they are in a fog of sorts.
In your case, not of your choosing.
rich
Yes, as I mention below, I took exception to "He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently. . ." as an indictment of Fetterman's ability to think coherently.
For the Billing: I lost my ability to touch-type, so I used hunt-and-peck to type or copy in the necessary numbers into copies of forms that I had previously prepared. I could still handle the computer (gaming) mouse, which was programmed with extra keys to Copy, Paste, and Enter.
The billing involved computing individual bills for the ~20 counties using our Secure Juvenile Detention Facility in Albany, NY, based on how many days each of a county's kids were in the Facility and for how many days. My boss and his secretary had tried working on it for two days and couldn't get it done. It took me six hours, instead of the usual 2-3 hours. I apparently made only one typo, in a county name for the Billing; the individual counties using the Facility varied by month. I did this at home the Monday I got home from the Hospital and emailed the results to work Monday evening. I'd had my stroke the previous Friday.
That's interesting, because my dad had a massive stroke that basically robbed him of the ability to carry on a conversation consisting of anything more than small talk. And even then, he tended to parrot phrases others had just said.
I never had another heart to heart talk with him after his stroke, but I discovered after he passed 20 years later, that he had been writing my mom letters several times a year. The letters were all very well written, totally coherent. Now I wish I'd known about the letters sooner, so we could have communicated with him in writing.
Were your Dad’s letters hand-written or typed? It appears that his cognition was reasonably intact, but his means for expressing himself were severely damaged.
I have to imagine it took him an immense amount of time and effort to form recognizable characters if he were hand writing. Hunt-and-peck typing might have been a little easier, although still frustrating.
Another way of communicating stroke victims with aphasia can use is through pictures. When I was initially in the general ER, I pointed to a picture on the wall with grass to communicate to my wife that the grass needed mowing so she could hire a landscaper. I was very blessed in my recovery by having a wife who was an English major and a licensed School Psychologist with an incredible amount of patience. Dealing with me was probably like handling a very large, angry two-year old. Stoke victims are often frustrated and angry; it just takes so much effort to re-learn the basics. Unfortunately, she died of a hemorrhagic stroke a year later.
Yes, my dad’s letters were all hand written, using a lot of adjectives, as he expressed his love for my mom. They were beautiful. I just wish I had realized that he could communicate in this way.
Fortunately, though his condition continued to deteriorate over 20 years, he was generally pretty sweet. He was diagnosed with vascular dementia. I know that many other dementia patients get cranky, so we were lucky. I can imagine it must be incredibly frustrating, to be unable to express yourself clearly.
You were really blessed in having such a supportive wife. I’m sorry to hear of her passing. My husband passed away 9 years ago, and the first few years were horrible. Best wishes to you and your family.
LOL we have to have *had* a stroke ourselves in order to be permitted by *you* to talk about the effects of strokes on people? How many people would you say there are in the world who have *never* had anyone in their family affected by a stroke? Did the unfortunate occurrence of your stroke magically make you the Dictator of Acceptable Use of the English Language When it Comes to the Subject of Strokes? Best wishes to you and your family with your *continuing* recovery from your stroke.
As to your question, according the the latest version of ChatGPT:
Key facts: Over 12 million strokes occur worldwide each year.
About 1 in 4 adults over age 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime.
The global population is about 8 billion.
Many people have large extended families, especially in regions like Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Stroke is more common in older adults, but most people have at least some older relatives.
Reasonable estimate:
If we assume that:
Each person has a family network of, say, 20–50 people (including extended relatives).
Given stroke’s lifetime prevalence, it's statistically very likely that most families have at least one member who has had a stroke.
Even if we conservatively guess that 5–10% of people worldwide might not have had a known family member suffer a stroke (due to small family size, lack of information, or just rare statistical chance), that would be:
5–10% of 8 billion = 400 million to 800 million people.
So, anywhere from 400 million to 800 million people worldwide might never have had anyone in their family affected by a stroke, but that’s likely a generous upper bound. The actual number is probably much lower given underreporting, lack of awareness, and broad family networks.
https://chatgpt.com/
Yes, I took exception to "He was stroke-addled to the point of being unable to speak coherently. . ." as an indictment of Fetterman's ability to think coherently. I didn't know his personal medical situation, other than that he'd had a stroke, but his speech was typical of those recovering from aphasia, which I had experienced. He hadn't lost all of his marbles, and quite possibly none of his conceptual thought abilities.
AMEN David! I experienced a stroke 2 months ago and could comprehend everything but couldn't form words- either hand written or typed. My hand writing is still pretty bad, but improving steadily.
Yes, I agree-if you haven't been there, just shut the fuck up!
Best wishes for your recovery. The first 2-3 years are the hardest, but you can make the most progress in that time.
My handwriting is still garbage but it never was very good; I used to print very fast on tests. My typing went from 96 wpm corrected down to ~10. I used a Mavis Beacon program to get it back up to ~66 wpm, which is sufficient for a 77-year old retiree. Typing numbers is back up to full speed, as there are fewer keys and I still function as a data analyst, sometimes having to enter a complete data set to work with it.
Hang in there and Illegitimi non carborundum.
My very best wishes for your challenging journey. Too bad you seem to be left with a potty mouth.
Nothing new; as a senior, I inherited the title, "Trenchmouth" in the Columbia Band.
Have a better day!
Fetterman is still voting for the gender cult at the expense of girls' and women's rights, so he is not deviating from the most sacred woke dogma.
You are not wrong. My only caveat would be, the two-party has control on how you get to run. Only someone with tons of $$$ has a chance to break out. Trump had enough to break out AND to fight the horseshit prosecutions against him.
People who have been active in local and state politics have told me that the Democratic Party decides who will be a preferred candidate, then they police other Party politicians to ensure that only that candidate gets endorsed.
True, that
Exactly. Deep down he’s just as evil as the rest of them. On occasion, he may get flashes of ethics… don’t let it fool you
The mentally ill leftists call it mental illness when one of their tribe has his own opinions. Independent thinking is frowned upon by Democrats. Cult like behavior. Toe the line or be ostracized. The “big tent” of Democrats is shrinking.
The circular firing squad is reducing their numbers too. That's what the Fetterman hoo hah is about. He needs to get back in line or it's Ready, Aim, Fire!
It's a leftist tradition perfected by the Soviets. Anyone unhappy in the worker's paradise or failing to grasp the wisdom of the Party was clearly insane and in need of "treatment."
They're afraid he'll flip to R
So much for indignant denunciations of "ablism" Now it's oh-so-earnest use of ablism. Of course.
Amazing how that works!
I was concerned about JF continuing to run after his stroke for several reasons. One, he was allowed no time to recover but was immediately pushed back into a high stress lifestyle (and his hospitalization early in his term demonstrated the harm). Second, the officer he holds required the ability to understand and produce verbal communication, in which he admitted he was impaired. However, I was soon very impressed with his performance. He shows he is thoughtful and not easily led (which I’m sure contributes to his party’s current attacks). He not only speaks about bipartisan cooperation, he acts. And he has demonstrated that has a conscience. These recent attempts to trash him, after the earlier vigorous defense, ring false.
Even when he couldn't speak coherently after his stroke, if you listened carefully to him, you could tell what he was trying to say, but simply wasn't able to articulate it clearly. His brain was still working fine.
The New York Times should be regulated as a DNC organization; its total operating budget should be calculated as campaign contributions.
It’s truly incredible to see them publish this, after yeaaaarrrrssss telling voters that Biden was fine *nothing to see here*…. Not a single journalist asked Fettermans Ex-campaign manager if he held a degree in Neuroscience, or was a Doctor. The god damn hypocrisy literally makes my stomach churn!
Yeah! Forget about Freedom of the Press. Such luxuries are unnecessary and unneeded in a Kleptocracy.
Oh, and the Kleptocracy was under the Biden Crime Family Syndicate, try and keep up.
Oh , & I see that you are a Nazi antisemite, as well. You sure broadcast your ignorance and bigotry far & wide. don’t you??
There’s no freedom there, they are just parroting what George Soros tells them to say. And no one, oh ignorant, one, is telling them that they can’t say it, it’s just a matter of truth in advertising, and identifying political propaganda as political propaganda, not truth or independent opinion.
Nice job identifying yourself as a Democrat dweeb.
“Leesburg and Down” sounds strangely similar to one of those disgusting DC law firms. Did you have to enter your private SCIF to type that pathetic reply? Lol
Clearly you've never watched the show Eastbound & Down.
Yup he got the Kennedy treatment. He dared to think for himself and therefore he must have a brain worm or brain damage from his stroke or isn't taking his meds. It's brutal out there if you cross the path of the blob.
The Blob is what ruled both Nazi Germany and the USSR.
Both were trendsetters and experts in the use of propaganda and agit-prop.
Yes, they were. Although those talents appeared as a result of the main event.
Almost all my progressive friends reference the brain worm when I express admiration for RFK.
People who have never had a brain worm should be so smart and articulate.
Fetterman is the next on deck. He is the next democrat that will be driven completely out of the party for wrong think.
It is the litmus test of whether a group is totalitarian or not -- if an insider or outsider dissents to or questions their leader or group narrative -- how do they respond?
If they shun/smear/punish, it is the classic indicator of totalitarianism. Which is not solely political.
something like 60% of the recent republican party are exactly that...
He showed signs of independent thought. He must be crushed by the DNC.
He will go the way of Synnema, Gabbard, Kennedy and others. Independent thought is, well, undemocratic.
The modern Democratic Party is a paramilitary organization. It's been a loooong time since a McGovern or a Dukakis would eventually emerge as their "leader" from the fog of internal warfare.
It's hard to believe the Democrats produced people like Harry Truman or Walter Mondale, men who would not recognize their party today.
Citizens United decision (corporations are people) wrecked our democracy. Now the winner is the one most easily bought.
It was certainly a factor, but unions were already heavily funding elections, i.e. on profits were already considered “people”. I would be in favor of only individual contributions with caps.
I'd be interested to know what people think changed in America that we have two parties moored only in their own self-preservation. Is there something wrong with us (the people) or with them? Is it the economic system or just the times? What the hell happened?
See m comment above. Citizens United is what happened.
In the 19th and even early 20th century, politicians sometimes had to leave politics to earn a living for their families. There is so much grift, so much feeding at the public trough by both parties that this is simply no longer the case today. That is why they suppress the emergence of third parties, why they exclude them from debates. That is why elections cost millions and, in the case of the Presidency, now into the billions of dollars. People don't give millions of dollars to someone they don't know for nothing. Patronage is alive and well, if more subtle today. The average American never sees this, which is why there is so much uproar over DOGE. If Americans broadly understood this, well....
Aren't you mixing two separate problems? I agree we have people pouring money into the system to buy political favors. I also agree we have a bloated bureaucracy whose members are supporting one party or the other, with little gained by the public they are supposed to serve. But, my outrage over DOGE is, one, there was no independent oversight of what was being done once Musk's crew got into the government records, and, two, how can you trust Musk to stop government waste when he is one of the biggest individual "feeders at the public trough"? Amazingly, the Department of Defense, which failed, I believe, 7 audits in the past years, is going to get more money than before. It seems to me we just switched one bunch of grifters for another.
I’m not close enough to the process to say whether Musk is running roughshod over the poor federal unionized bureaucrats, but I hope he is.
I trust Musk more than anyone in Washington, and he has accomplished more than all of Congress and their children, many of whom will grow up to be in Congress as well.
As for the trough, I agree he has heavily benefited by the Green scam though, unlike most, he has produced good products and advanced human technology. I’m for doing away with all energy subsidies, and for reducing inefficient regulation.
TOTALLY AGREE!!!!!
Have you got a few hours?
If you want the answer in a nutshell, it is known as Shadow Possession. Theory by Carl Jung.
Okay, thanks (I think). Carl, here I come.
I think you confuse lack of thought with independent thought. Independent thought is consistent and is "independent" because it is rooted in unshakeable principles and values. I don't think that applies to the trio you name.
I know of no politician with "unshakeable principles and values", not one. To me, independent means a willingness to stand for what one believes and not be prisoner to a particular ideology, culture or political party. My definition does indeed apply to those three individuals, however right or wrong history may judge them to be.
Okay. I think "unshakeable principles and values" and "a willingness to stand for what one believes and not be a prisoner to a particular ideology, culture, or political party" are the same thing, provided that what one believes is rooted in consistent rational thought and not just the result of narcissistic grandstanding. Now, explain to me how Sinema and Kennedy exemplify the former and not the latter. (Gabbard, I confess, puzzles me. The few times I saw her in the past, she struck me as straightforward. I tend to think the shit that the Dems threw at her (Hillary in particular), knocked her off course, but that doesn't excuse the cringe-inducing groveling she's engaging in at those cabinet meetings. I have to think she goes home and takes loooong showers.
Yeah, Gabbard has done quite a 180. But imagine fighting for your country, then serving in Congress and for no reason other than opposing Hillary (which the American people also did in an election), she’s put on a terror watch list! I don’t know, maybe that tweaked her perspective a bit.
To me Synnema is just a moderate with principles, a Blue Dog Democrat. I don’t always agree with her, but I’ve always thought she has integrity.
Kennedy and the Kennedys are more complicated. Read Maureen Callaghan’s recent book “Ask Not” about how the Kennedys treat women, and it makes you sick. He has a point about our terrible diet, but his vaccine theories seem pretty ungrounded to me. Like most lawyers, they are better at arguing than understanding science, finance, energy, etc.
I agree. The way Gabbard was hounded by the Dems was disgraceful, and she was rightfully angry, but now she's supporting people who are doing the same thing to other dissenters. I hoping she'll snap out if it. I thought she had a lot to offer.
Sinema, I don't see her that way, but maybe you're right.
On Kennedy, I'm with you all the way. It's a shame that all the things he's saying about the American diet and the harmful food additives we allow are being ignored because he's the one saying them.
Its the old Soviet playback. Non conformity to the party line equals mental illness.
Also used by Victorian gentlemen without a legal divorce option to get rid of the wife for a newer model. All that was required was a bribable doctor in one's circle, signing that the old model wife was "mad".
Although I hasten to add that being a non-feminist woman myself, I must admit that women are equally capable of gaslighting, under different circumstances.
There is a variant of gaslighting in which the target is not accused of mental illness to degrade or humiliate them, but of abuse of some sort. False allegations. And we know that this version is very popular.
How can you be a non-feminist when women are so often forced to gaslight? What other options do we have? I guess being declared mad is better, in your view, than being replaced because your husband no longer has the hots for you but can't say it 'cause. . . you might sue him for breach of contract. A madwoman has no agency. She is, after all, mad.
Bonnie, I was talking about this happening in the Victorian age. Not now.
I'm afraid you sound as if you're another woman who has taken one too many of the gender studies classes. I steered very far clear of them, myself.
I was always too smart to be lured into feminism. I could see what they were doing. It was just another neo-Marxist ideology meant to destroy.
But they couldn't present it that way, could they? Had to be presented as if it was the enlightened, superior, progressive thing to be...😁. Had to engage the vanities! That's the main trick of con-artists everywhere. They certainly do not announce upfront they are intending to dupe you.
C'mon Bonnie....you knew that, didn't you?
Okay, A.A., before you shuttle me off to get lost in Carl Jung, explain how feminism is "just another neo-Marxist ideology meant to destroy." To me, that implies that you think Western civilization was just fine before Marxist criticism of capitalism and before women expanded their role in society beyond wife and mother.
Francesca, my dear.....the world of humanity always has been and always will be imperfect. That is the nature of the game. It is the degree of imperfection that we hope to change.
I would say that since the interjection of modern Marxist feminism, the West has become far more imperfect. Far more problematic. Which was the design for that ideology. By 2025, we normals have all that additional destruction to clean up and attempt to mend.
1. Marxism was not mainly criticism of capitalism. It was mainly a mind-capture. That is what Communism (or any kind of totalitarianism) is.
2. I am sorry you are unfamiliar with Carl Jung. Do your homework then. And what did I say to link Jung with feminism anyway?
3. Don't jump to silly conclusions based upon your own lack of understanding.
4. Why do you think the pillar of WOKE -- DEI - is so fond of and loyal to feminism, if not because feminism is one of their ideologies?
5. If you were caught in feminism as a Useful Idiot, and acted out of that, you are not likely to admit having gone astray, are you?
And I note that my two detractors have not replied.
A., One, any ideology that promotes censorship can be characterized as "mind-capture" (including religion), but that doesn't automatically mean everything it contains is without merit. Two, my reference to Jung was a joking nod to your earlier suggestion of my reading up on Shadow Possession (which I intend to do) and not meant to have anything to do with a discussion of feminism, so there was no jumping to conclusions on my part and a lack of understanding on yours. Three, it seems obvious that DEI thinking would have a natural affinity to feminism since both share a common thread of expanding the social possibilities for people who have been marginalized in the past. The way you make it sound like an unholy, soul-sucking, secret alliance aimed at world domination hints at a touch of paranoia. Four, if deciding for myself whether I wanted to live out my life as a wife and mother and nothing else or whether I wanted equal pay for equal work is being "caught in feminism as a Useful Idiot," I plead guilty (though I would say that it is more a case of common sense than of "having gone astray," which suggests that there is a one, true ideology that must be followed by us all, regardless of our personal preferences and ambitions). And, really, asking someone to clarify what they mean or to expand upon a comment doesn't make one a "detractor," unless you are accustomed to total, unquestioning acceptance of whatever you say. If you are, I suggest you start carving your comments in stone, as is the custom.
The total unquestioning acceptance of what others say is more the approach of women who are feminists, rather than women such as myself who tread an independent path not only towards higher education.....but marriage and motherhood too.
I am the one who bravely took the path less travelled, as an educated woman who speaks out against feminism.
Feminism has been full of sheep. I am not one of them. Thank God.
"The way you make it sound like an unholy, soul-sucking, secret alliance aimed at world domination hints at a touch of paranoia."
No, Francesca. You appear not to have the background that I do. I could give you a grad program bibliography to read....but why would I bother? You do not want to be enlightened about this. It would lose you your supportive herd.
I know by now that people caught in these mind traps must want to escape, and be willing to face facts. That is seldom the case with long-term feminists. Especially if they themselves have caused destruction in the lives of others due to these beliefs. It would take moral courage to face this.
Honestly, I went to grad school, too, and thought that many of the papers I read were suitable for mulch and little else. Get off your high horse and learn to accept that people choose their life paths for a multitude of reasons (often unrecognized by themselves), some good, some bad, and yours is not the only way to go. Though your need to denigrate the lives of others should give you a clue that you might not be as satisfied as you think.
"One, any ideology that promotes censorship can be characterized as "mind-capture" (including religion), but that doesn't automatically mean everything it contains is without merit. "
No. You are failing to grasp what mind-capture actually is. It is what we see in delusional cult followers, in the all-believing COVID-maniacs, in mobs gone mad, in the Germans of the 1930s. It is a strongly detrimental social/group contagion which happens under specific circumstances.
And the word "censorship" as you use it may be applied as an action to anything the WOKE leftwing does not like. Anything at all. The word itself has been degraded. The WOKE simply censor whatever disagrees with their totalitarian group narrative.
Religion, I will add, has categories here. There is religion that practices homeostasis (most mainstream Judeo-Christianity) and religion that has gone to polar extremes so that they become totalitarian. THAT is the difference.
"Three, it seems obvious that DEI thinking would have a natural affinity to feminism since both share a common thread of expanding the social possibilities for people who have been marginalized in the past."
What you must understand is that WOKE (and its handmaiden DEI)....is a form of totalitarianism. It is NOT the supposedly noble expanding of social possibilities for the marginalized. That is simply the smokescreen. Which the masses of Useful Idiots are blinded by. It is ever thus. This blinding is a basis of the mind-capture.
Unless you understand the Dupe involved....you will never see past it. It is as if you decided to allow yourself to be lured into one of those presentations in hotel conference rooms on considering the purchase of time-shares in Florida. They make it all sound lovely and enticing to the punters. It's the way the manipulation game is played.
They gotcha! You bought not Florida time-shares....but feminism. Oh, dear.....
Hmmm, you mean that all it takes?
Well....once upon a time.
Lol
only man I know who got smarter after a stroke
lmao, good one..
Based on responses probably my best one. Lol
Biden is sharp as a tack.
<applause>
He has/d aphasia. It is a speech and language disruption, following stroke in the areas of the brain that control speech and language. Look it up people. Clearly, he worked incredibly hard to recover from it, and people can get depressed at feeling alienated by their difficulty communicating. Maybe the NYT should call and talk to the American Speech Language and Hearing Association or the Aphasiology Association. This is a disorder that’s been known to mankind as long as man has been around. But that would be doing their homework being responsible and that’s something that’s just beyond the scope of the New York Times these days.
They don't seriously believe he's got mental health issues. They are simply beginning the process of getting rid of a free thinker who they thought was in the bag for their leftist insanity.
But, that would require those dullards at NYT to do primary research ..
When he was recovering from his stroke, I spent some time listening carefully to his speeches and interviews. Despite the language difficulties, you could still see he was smart underneath, just struggling to articulate.
Which is the challenge of aphasia- it impacts the communication routes, not the underlying intellectual or cognitive abilities. Of course there are different types and severities depending on extent and location of brain involvement. It’s been great to see him recover.
"Man, political analysis is getting weird in this country…"
You spelled, "the news media are rabid partisan pieces of shit" wrong.
I only trust the neurological expertise of George Clooney.
Expertise that in George's case seems to be an intense empirical study of the effects of the axillary region on the olfactory bulb.
Now, that’s what I mean!
Waving the Israeli flag from the rooftop of his Batman-villian warehouse home was cool and normal, but considering voting for Pete Hegseth is clear indication of a mental health crisis.
Actually the pro-Pali wing of the Dem party (i.e. most of it) didn't like it at all. I didn't worry about whether it was "normal" but I thought it was definitely cool.
Kind of a hint who rules...
So considering voting for Hegseth warrants serious condideration of brain damage.
When or where was there ever this type of analysis of Biden before the debate debacle? In his case, even speculating about his mental status was considered a step short of treason.
Looks like political "asylums" might not be far away.
What’s that saying about how when everyone is crazy, it’s the sane folks who appear out of their minds?
I guess when the (apparent) majority has TDS, they likely see those who don’t as insane.
Moreover, didn’t O’Brien explain to Winston that he was insane when he believed 2+2=4?
How does anyone take the NYT seriously
My cat Dottie does. She craps on the paper in her little cat box everyday. Good she can’t read..
Do they even hear themselves?
The Dems have no problem with a U.S. Senator wearing a hoodie and short pants everywhere he goes, as if that’s suddenly normal and accepted for someone in his position. But thinking any independent, non-DNC thoughts is a deal-breaker for the Dems when they’re that close to 50/50 in the Senate. Interesting but not at all surprising. It’s as dishonest as the news coverage of it!
Ha! Great observation! Just like they had no problem with a recovering stroke victim taking the stage for a televised debate (the now Senator), just like they had no problem with a senile and impaired POTUS taking the stage for a televised debate, just like they have no problem with —- the list of cruelties is endless.