How can it not be a blow to one’s ego when one starts hearing how others are doubting your mental faculties and both publicly and privately questioning your capacity to handle your job?

I have to wonder if Joe Biden isn’t feeling both betrayed and embarrassed by what he’s been hearing lately. Someone in his lofty position probably doesn’t take too kindly to being second-guessed and increasingly discounted.

His options appear to be narrowing—either he circles the wagons and weathers this storm, perhaps to the detriment of desired results in November, or he suppresses his ego and humbly acquiesces to calls for him to step down, in deference to an opportunity for the Dems to field a more attractive and younger candidate who can prevail against Trump.

Sadly, Mr. Biden is feeling more and more like damaged goods, incapable of returning to (much) earlier form.  

Everyone’s in a tizzy over Joe Biden. He can’t win, it seems. His press conference at the NATO summit apparently did little to quell the disturbance in the wake of The Debate.

One public figure after another, besides Gretchen Whitmer, is recommending that Joe hang it up. But Joe is doing his best Trump imitation, digging in his heels, maybe reacting as one who realizes the alignment against him is growing louder and stronger and he refuses to buy it. It’s difficult to see how this groundswell just goes away.

There’s a growing inevitability in the air, and it doesn’t surround the thinking that this is going to quiet down and go back to the way things were a while ago. It’s all quite sad and hard to watch, and it’s not doing anything for the Dems’ chances in November, at least at this point.

I don’t know what’s going on in Biden’s head, but maybe there’s a stark realization that his political life might be ending differently than he envisioned. Perhaps he sees it all slipping away, or is disappointed that so many seem to be giving up on him. It seems it won’t be enough for him that he was in office when the bleeding was stopped after a nightmare Trump administration that dealt in coarseness and incompetence, and grossly mishandled a pandemic. Biden oversaw popular legislation that was passed into law, he restored a certain faith in our pacts and agreements with nations around the world. He’s taken global warming somewhat seriously. He was what the doctor ordered after the aberration that was Trump.

But now there’s worry that he’s losing his edge and becoming more detriment than ace in the hole. He was never supposed to be more than a bridge, and now, disappointingly, it appears he and his allies are circling the wagons and just getting greedy, taking it personally.

I happened to come across a clip that offered a side-by-side comparison of Joe Biden back in 2020, during the last campaign, and recent footage that reveals that these last 3-plus years have indeed taken a toll on him. The differences in physical appearance and overall sharpness were apparent even to me. There was nothing subtle about the changes. I can see why people are concerned for what another 4 years of being President during challenging times would mean for Biden and the country. It seems like a risk, a genuine risk, and it bothers me that Joe is digging in his heels.

It hardly seems worth it for him. And us. It sounds like there’s been something of a cover-up going on for a while now—the limited, scripted appearances, etc. What I keep wondering is how much of the reporting is reaction to something hackers have dumped into the mix, and how much is genuine concern for Biden’s fitness.

He’s digging in his heels, talking about “elites,” which doesn’t feel much different than what Trump has been doing forever. But it seems momentum continues to build in the direction of finding someone younger to put at the top of the ticket. The voicing of support– that Joe is still the one– is ringing with increasing futility and hollowness.

Meanwhile, Republicans just have to sit back and watch the carnage unfold. But they best not get too comfortable, because their candidate has been nothing to write home about since… forever.

The commentary is reflective of the current situation and mood—it’s all over the map, with predictions and conjecture and much spit-balling and resignation, i.e. the decision is in the President’s hands…? There’s been little to no talk of invoking the 25^th Amendment, because Biden really has done nothing wrong except grow old. Such an invocation would border on cruel and unusual punishment, even as, in a general sense, Biden is causing us to wonder about his fitness for the job.

There’s no job for Joe to finish. That just makes him sound like a five-year old who doesn’t want to go home yet, who wants to stay at Grandma’s house a little longer. He’s served well and honorably, despite all the cackling and dumbness emanating from Fox and Trump and the rest of the rambling Right.

It appears that Mr. Biden needs to swallow his pride and conjure up the humility and magnanimity to concede that his time as CEO is coming to an end.

What is it like to be able to lie as easily as it is to breathe?

DJT is a master of the art, if it can be called such. The latest is his insistence that he knows nothing about Project 2025, the frightening conservative blueprint and brainchild of the ironically named Heritage Foundation, conceived by a number of people Trump will deny knowing if asked about them.

For Trump, it must be like closing your eyes and believing that others can’t see you: if he says he knows nothing about things he obviously knows about, then people need to take him at his word…

Yes, it is all as ridiculous as it sounds. And millions don’t care that he’s lying through his teeth. And that the master plan is to tear apart the current system of governance, the system conceived and given to us by Jefferson and Madison and the rest.

It’s just your stunningly paranoid manifesto from the minds of people who don’t get around much, beyond their country clubs and yachts and Old Testament Bible studies and shared affinity for heroes like Ayn Rand, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Adolph Hitler.

And Trump knows nothing about any of it, believe him.

How has it been possible for intelligent adults to be so ignorant and blind? Money has talked, for a while.

But it’s now way past time for elected representatives in Congress to grow a backbone and swear off the cash pipeline and wake up.  

At the rate things are going, temps in AZ and CA are going to reach uninhabitable levels sooner than later. I remember hearing of summer days in AZ reaching 110, 115, but now—in California—people are suffering through their own share of 115-degree days, with Death Valley finally hitting the 130 degree threshold.

But there is no accelerated global warming. That’s just a liberal fever dream shared by the vast majority of scientists on the planet.

Fossil fuel companies should be held responsible, just like the cigarette companies eventually were. And for similar reasons.

Update: apparently, it was only 129 in Death Valley.

Nothing will end on November 5, if Trump loses.

Does anyone actually believe he’d finally take the hint and just walk away? Does Project 2025 anticipate a loss, contain contingencies, ways and methods for continuing to muddy the waters and tie up the courts with more frivolous lawsuits—or something more violent and confrontational—to stop what would be considered yet another steal? What do Russia and other nefarious players have to do with all this current controversy and messiness over Joe’s fitness for office? Or is this just a gift plopped in Putin’s lap?

It’s a pain in the ass to have to question everything.  It’s tempting to believe that this 3-ringed circus from hell is never going to end. Or, at best, end badly.

Trump is a cheap stunt. It’s all he’s ever been. A loud-mouthed pretender in love with the attention.

Imagine someone so selfish, just yakking away, taking up our time for the past nine years. Longer, if you include all the years of annoying people in NYC with his Savvy Businessman schtick.

This all has to come to an end now, or at least by November 5. No more of this clown, and the detritus he’s stirred up. We have more important things to think about besides a bloviating, shallow phoney.

Mr. Biden is wounded. He’s defiant, but wounded, and the momentum seems to be building among those who want him to step aside.

Even if this is somehow a piling on, it feels like we’re not far removed from that moment when Biden faces the cameras and announces he’s bowing out in favor of Kamala Harris. It seems to be approaching inevitable. Biden’s candidacy is becoming less viable every day in no small part because there is so much negative talk out there. It’s taking on the feel of a self-fulfilling prophecy, even if Joe is still actually capable of carrying out his duties.

I hope the Dems know what they’re doing. Changing candidates at this point in the campaign would appear to be a risky thing. Harris seems capable, but then the question becomes, “Who will be the running mate?” Stepping back for a moment, it sometimes feels like the DNC is panicking, depending too much on poll numbers still 4 months removed from the election, and strangely fixated on the sub-par debate performance. This could turn into a debacle if it’s not done right. The thing is, I can’t see people deciding to vote for Trump if Biden withdraws. It seems more likely that people just won’t vote at all, unless a more attractive candidate emerges.

Events in England and France are encouraging, to some extent. One can only hope that trend carries over to the states. In any event, whoever ends up facing Trump needs to be interesting enough to prevent any chance of the empty-headed gas bag prevailing.

It has to be tough for Joe Biden. I’m only 70 but I still feel, at least mentally, like I’m 30. It’s probably the same for Joe, except he’s 81 and he’s President of the United States.

But what about FDR, one might ask: did his polio inhibit his ability to do his job—for 3-plus terms?! I guess that’s not apples and apples. FDR was 63 when he died, and he was a different animal to begin with. Joe is already 81, and showing signs of advanced age—in a job that demands sharpness and stamina, and a certain tirelessness.

The past is the past, and Joe performed admirably. But the future is the future, and Joe will not get any younger. It’s hard to think in these terms, and maybe everyone is overreacting. But a certain reality is becoming apparent—people are worried that Mr. Biden may not be able to handle another term and all that will inevitably come with it.

Well, that, and current members of Congress are worried about their own futures and the likelihood of Biden prevailing in November.

Interesting and challenging times for America and the Democratic Party. Either things quiet down and we forge ahead with Joe, or a decision must be made, in short order, to ready Kamala Harris for a helluva stretch run to Election Day.

History conveniently shelved. I can see why. It’s easy to sweep the ugly stuff under the rug or avoid it altogether– if people want us to grow up with a certain notion of America in our heads. No need to teach the nuts and bolts and gritty details of Manifest Destiny—that somehow entitled, God-ordained, and ruthless expansion westward.

Promises made, broken, or never kept. The poor treatment, the utter disregard for indigenous traditions and practices. The extermination of men, women and children. Survivors and subsequent generations relegated to reservations, treated little better than impediments and obstacles and less than human.

That understanding of America, that fuller picture of how we came to be, isn’t liable to elicit the same feelings of pride and patriotism. Many eventually find out, though, and then a fair share of our history becomes less than heroic.

America the beautiful, with a giant asterisk and lots of small print.