Mental fitness: Trump v. Biden

[homersapien 11,812]

Is Donald Trump okay?

His story about hypothetically being electrocuted is another glimpse into a mind that is unwell.

It is irresponsible to obsess over President Biden’s tendency to mangle a couple of words in a speech while Donald Trump is out there sounding detached from reality. Biden, who is old, at least makes sense. Trump, who also is old, rants like someone you’d cross the street to avoid.

We in the media have failed by becoming inured to Trump’s verbal incontinence — not just the rapid-fire lies and revenge-seeking threats, but also the frightening glimpses into a mind that is, evidently, unwell. In 2016, Trump said outrageous things at his campaign rallies to be entertaining. In 2024, his tangents raise serious questions about his mental fitness.

His rally on Sunday in Las Vegas offered a grim smorgasbord of examples, but the obvious standout (and not in a good way) is the story he told about being aboard a hypothetical electric-powered boat. He posits that the battery would be so heavy that it would cause the craft to sink, and he relates his purported conversation with a knowledgeable mariner about this scenario. Bear with me, but it’s worth reading the passage in full:

“I say, ‘What would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you’re in the boat, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery’s now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?’

 

“By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately, do you notice that? Lot of sharks. I watched some guys justifying it today: ‘Well they weren’t really that angry, they bit off the young lady’s leg because of the fact that they were not hungry but they misunderstood who she was.’ These people are crazy. He said, ‘There’s no problem with sharks, they just didn’t really understand a young woman swimming.’ No, really got decimated, and other people, too, a lot of shark attacks.

 

“So I said, ‘There’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards, or here. Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking? Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?’ Because I will tell you, he didn’t know the answer.

 

“He said, ‘You know, nobody’s ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there’s a lot of electric current coming through that water.’ But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark. So we’re going to end that, we’re going to end it for boats, we’re going to end it for trucks.”

Trucks? He’s actually talking about the transition to electric vehicles, which he has vowed to halt. That entire hallucination is part of Trump’s rationale for one of his major policy positions.

Trump has told the electrocution-or-shark story at least once before, at a rally in Iowa last October. Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress who received $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about her sexual encounter with Trump — a payment that led to the former president’s conviction on 34 felony charges — has said that Trump is “obsessed with sharks, terrified of sharks.” Way back in 2013, he declared on Twitter: “Sharks are last on my list — other than perhaps the losers and haters of the World!”

The White House press corps would be in wolf pack mode if Biden were in the middle of a speech and suddenly veered into gibberish about boats and sharks. There would be front-page stories questioning whether the president, at 81, was suffering from dementia; and the op-ed pages would be filled with thumb-suckers about whether Vice President Harris and the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment. House Republicans would already have scheduled hearings on Biden’s mental condition and demanded he take a cognitive test.

The tendency with Trump, at 77, is to say he’s “just being Trump.” But he’s like this all the time.

Also during the Las Vegas speech, Trump tried to deny the allegation by one of his White House chiefs of staff, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, that he refused in 2018 to visit an American military cemetery in France, saying it was filled with “suckers” and “losers.” Trump told the crowd on Sunday that “only a psycho or a crazy person or a very stupid person” would say such a thing while “I’m standing there with generals and military people in a cemetery.”

But he wasn’t “standing there” with anybody. He never went to the cemetery.

Except in his mind, perhaps, which is a much bigger problem than Biden fumbling a name or garbling a sentence.

By Eugene Robinson

June 10, 2024

[SaltyTiger 8,240]

6 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Biden, who is old, at least makes sense.

[ArgoEagle 1,968]

8 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

I guess he makes sense to senseless people?

[homersapien 11,812]

27 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

I guess he makes sense to senseless people?

Provide some examples of  Biden's senseless thoughts  or positions, not just one word gaffs.

Edited June 11 by homersapien

[homersapien 11,812]

36 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

 

So, should we assume you choose Trump?

[ArgoEagle 1,968]

Just now, homersapien said:

Provide some examples of senseless thoughts  or positions, not just one word gaffs.

No thanks.  All you have to do is read your own posts & you will see them.

[homersapien 11,812]

Just now, ArgoEagle said:

No thanks.  All you have to do is read your own posts & you will see them.

Yeah, that's what I figured. You can't.

[SaltyTiger 8,240]

23 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

I guess he makes sense to senseless people?

Haven’t heard Joe say anything non scripted in a long while. He struggles but does a decent job. His SOU was ok and be interesting to know the amount and type of prep. 

[ArgoEagle 1,968]

Just now, homersapien said:

Yeah, that's what I figured. You can't.

I can, but I don't like senseless arguing behind a computer.   That's your thing, not mine.

Salty highlighted your main senseless statement which said Biden is old, but at least he makes sense.  If you believe that, then I've got some Ocean Front property in the Mojave Desert I want to sell you for cheap.

[aubaseball 2,739]

 

[aubaseball 2,739]

And by the way, the entire example you have of Trump is a hypothetical scenario.    He is speaking hypothetically.   I believe it’s called making a joke of battery powered boats and running into a shark.   
 

[homersapien 11,812]

27 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

I can, but I don't like senseless arguing behind a computer.   That's your thing, not mine.

Salty highlighted your main senseless statement which said Biden is old, but at least he makes sense.  If you believe that, then I've got some Ocean Front property in the Mojave Desert I want to sell you for cheap.

In other words, you've got nothing.

[CoffeeTiger 5,523]

19 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

 

 

 

Dude...come on.....you're being taken for a ride on this one.  

 

It was Donald Trump who made the comment about airports in the Revolutionary War.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/05/flight-of-fancy-trump-claims-1775-revolutionary-army-took-over-airports 

This video Biden is clearly referencing the gaff by Trump. (Remember how Trump calls himself a 'Very Stable Genius'?) That's what Biden is referencing. 

 

I like how Conservatives are so Concerned about Biden's mental fitness that they have to make up fake gaffs and edit videos to try and make him look bad. 

Edited June 11 by CoffeeTiger

[homersapien 11,812]

14 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

And by the way, the entire example you have of Trump is a hypothetical scenario.    He is speaking hypothetically.   I believe it’s called making a joke of battery powered boats and running into a shark.   
 

So you think it was well-reasoned and concise.   

I am not surprised.

[SaltyTiger 8,240]

31 minutes ago, homersapien said:

So, should we assume you choose Trump?

I don’t care what you assume. Rest assured I don’t feel Biden should be running. Further, I don’t feel Trump should be running. 

[SaltyTiger 8,240]

5 minutes ago, homersapien said:

So you think it was well-reasoned and concise. 

You are crazier than I thought if you would take the shark.

[CoffeeTiger 5,523]

24 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

And by the way, the entire example you have of Trump is a hypothetical scenario.    He is speaking hypothetically.   I believe it’s called making a joke of battery powered boats and running into a shark.   
 

So you post a fake gaff of Biden followed by justifying an obviously confused Trump rant by claiming he was just "joking"
 

Do you think maybe...just maybe your preconceived beliefs and biases may be blinding you a little bit on this topic? 

 

Edited June 11 by CoffeeTiger

[auburnatl1 5,727]

This is a depressing debate because both sides have a point.

[homersapien 11,812]

1 minute ago, SaltyTiger said:

I don’t care what you assume. Rest assured I don’t feel Biden should be running. Further, I don’t feel Trump should be running.

Well, like it or not Salty, it's a choice, so your feelings are essentially irrelevant.

So, based on your response to the OP, I will assume you will either 1) vote for Trump, or 2) not vote at all. 

 

[homersapien 11,812]

3 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

You are crazier than I thought if you would take the shark.

So you also think it was well-reasoned and sane argument? 

Are you arguing the scenario is realistic? 

Is it relevant to the issue of battery powered trucks?

[homersapien 11,812]

6 minutes ago, auburnatl1 said:

This is a depressing debate because both sides have a point.

Which are?

[aubaseball 2,739]

1 minute ago, CoffeeTiger said:

So you post a fake gaff of Biden followed by justifying an obviously confused Trump rant by claiming he was just "joking"
 

Do you think maybe...just maybe your preconceived beliefs and biases may be blinding you a little bit on this topic? 

 

I had never heard of the Trump speech on the airport thing.   I just listened to it.   It was a bit cringy.   I’m able to see that Trump is full of sh$t type person and makes crazy hypothetical and outlandish statements.    He is old as dirt and shouldn’t be running for president.   But I also know that Biden and Trump are  liars  and makes sh$t up all the time to make themselves look better.   Biden shouldn’t be running either.   That’s the difference to me.  I’m able to see that both are flawed 

[auburnatl1 5,727]

2 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Which are?

That neither candidate is who they were. If people want to debate the degree of who’s worse, have at it. But regardless imo with either of them the vp’s are in play.

[homersapien 11,812]

2 hours ago, aubaseball said:

I had never heard of the Trump speech on the airport thing.   I just listened to it.   It was a bit cringy.   I’m able to see that Trump is full of sh$t type person and makes crazy hypothetical and outlandish statements.    He is old as dirt and shouldn’t be running for president.   But I also know that Biden and Trump are  liars  and makes sh$t up all the time to make themselves look better.   Biden shouldn’t be running either.   That’s the difference to me.  I’m able to see that both are flawed 

See my response to Salty.  Like it or not, it's a choice.

I suggest that both are old.  Biden is not as sharp mentally or physically as he once was, but he essentially makes rational, well-reasoned decisions which are in the country's interest.

(The latter can, of course, be debated individually, which I am more than willing to do.)

Trump is a narcissistic sociopath who - unlike Biden - exhibits signs of dementia.

The worst that can happen under a Biden second term is that we will continue to make progress in areas that we sorely need to.

Trump will cause chaos and a constitutional crisis and a plummeting of U.S. global power. 

Edited June 11 by homersapien

[SLAG-91 1,578]

Imagine being so partisan that you think either of these smooth-brained potatoes is a worthwhile candidate...atl is 100% correct.  This is a depressing debate.