Gerontacracy Alert: Ron Johnson Says That Mitch McConnell Is "Completely Out of Step" with Republicans; Morning Joe Shills Admit that Every Democrat Privately Admits That Biden Is Too Old to be President (or Even " " " President " " ")

I did not expect Ron Johnson, who was earlier suspected of being liberal-leaning RINO, to evolve into one of the most based and ballsy senators we have.

Senator Tommy Tuberville is objecting to unanimous consent to approve military promotions, to protest the Pentagon's very illegal use of taxpayer money for abortions for servicemembers. He think that if the Pentagon acts contrary to the law, and decides to make its own abortion policy in strict defiance of Congress, someone should protest that.

Note that this doesn't actually block military promotions -- just their approval en masse by unanimous consent. ("En masse" is French for "fat as morbidly obese Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.")

The Democrats could vote on each promotion individually and speed-vote through them.

But they don't want to -- they want to make political hay on the abortion issue.

And Mitch McConnell is right where he always is, repeating Democrat talking points to browbeat senators who are actually conservative and vote like conervatives.

The only thing that matters to Captain Aphasia is keeping the trains running on time, like a good little statist and crypto-Stasiist.

Wednesday, during an appearance on FNC's "The Ingraham Angle," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) defended his colleague Sen. Tommy Tuberville's (R-AL) stance against the Department of Defense's post-Dobbs decision abortion policy.

Johnson said Tuberville had backing within the Senate Republican conference despite pushback against Tuberville from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who he called "out of step."

"I know this will shock you and your audience, but Democrats are being complete hypocrites on this. If they really wanted a comment for the Marines, they would just call up the nomination for a vote, first to close your vote, and then two hours later, vote to confirm the nomination," he said. "It takes literally no more than four hours, but generally, two if you do it as a comeback vote. And, you know, I think Leader McConnell is completely out of step with our conference. I just feel a great deal of support for Senator Tuberville within our conference, as well as among our base. I mean, we are the party of life. We're also the party that upholds the rule of law."

It's time for Senator Lost Time to retire.

Actually it was that time the last time he stood, shakily, for re-election. Now the time to retire is after Kentucky elects a Republican governor.

Meanwhile, the Morning Joe Morning Zoo admits that, in private, all Democrats -- "everyone we talk to" -- say that Joe Biden is simply too old to continue pretending to be president.

Democrats concede off-air that they believe President Joe Biden is too old to seek another term in the White House, according to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

During his show on Wednesday, Scarborough talked about how Democrats will dismiss the age issue when on TV but privately express concerns about it when not on camera.

"Mika and I," Scarborough said, referring to his wife and "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski, "everybody, we talk to -- every political discussion, all it talks a lot about [former President Donald] Trump, but when it comes to Joe Biden, people say, 'Man, he's too old to run, isn't he?'"

Scarborough, a former GOP congressman, emphasized that he did not mean "99%" of the discussions but rather "every" conversation. Rev. Al Sharpton, another MSNBC on-air personality, has been hearing the same kind of chatter, he added.

Video below the fold.

75% of the public wants age limits for politicians.

Over three-fourths of Americans think there should be a maximum age limit for elected officials, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey.

Why it matters: The poll comes as attention toward the age of politicians has been in the spotlight after several incidents, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) freezing in front of reporters and ongoing concerns about President Biden's age.

By the numbers: 77% of those surveyed said there should be "maximum age limits for elected officials," meaning "after they reach a certain age, they are not permitted to hold office any longer."

The concern proved to be bipartisan, with 76% of Democrats and 79% of Republicans calling for maximum age limits for elected officials.

45% of respondents said the maximum age limit for elected officials should be 70.

A combined 30% of respondents said either 50 or 60 should be the maximum age.

What?

Only 18% said 80 should be the maximum age limit for elected officials.

Between the lines: Over half think the job of the president is "too demanding for someone over the age of 75," though 38% said "it depends."

...

Sixteen senators are 75 or older, and 18 are between 74 and 70.

We cannot impose age limits without a constitutional amendment. The Constitution imposes age requirements already -- I think a Congressman must be 25, and a president must be at least 35 -- which means the Founders already addressed the issue of age and we cannot change this except by altering the Constitution through amendment.

So I don't imagine anything will be done on this issue as a legal matter.

Searches for the term "gerontocracy" spiked after Mitch McConnell's second public brain freeze episode.

After Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell froze mid-sentence during a press conference Tuesday, Google searches for the term "gerontocracy" -- oligarchical rule by the elderly -- spiked, according to Google Trends.

In the days before the episode, virtually no one was searching for the term. In the afternoon hours, as news of McConnell's episode spread, Google searches for the term began to rise then quickly quadrupled, peaking around 7 p.m.

The RAND Corporation did a "study" in the spring, which the Intercept now publicizes, which concluded that the declining cognitive abilities of the gerontocracy threatens our national security.

The specific threat, the "study" finds, comes from people with declining mental acuity handling classified materials.

The study, published by the RAND Corporation's National Security Research Division in April, identifies individuals with both current and former access to classified material who develop dementia as threats to national security, citing the possibility that they may unwittingly disclose government secrets.

"Individuals who hold or held a security clearance and handled classified material could become a security threat if they develop dementia and unwittingly share government secrets," the study says.

...

Most holders of security clearances, a ballooning class of officials and other bureaucrats with access to secret government information, are subject to rigorous and invasive vetting procedures. Applying for a clearance can mean hourslong polygraph tests; character interviews with old teachers, friends, and neighbors; and ongoing automated monitoring of their bank accounts and other personal information. As one senior Pentagon official who oversees such a program told me of people who enter the intelligence bureaucracy, "You basically give up your Fourth Amendment rights."

Yet, as the authors of the RAND report note, there does not appear to be any vetting for age-related cognitive decline. In fact, the director of national intelligence's directive on continuous evaluation contains no mention of age or cognitive decline.

...

The U.S.'s current leadership is not only the oldest in history, but also the number of older people in Congress has grown dramatically in recent years. In 1981, only 4 percent of Congress was over the age of 70. By 2022, that number had spiked to 23 percent.

In 2017, Vox reported that a pharmacist had filled Alzheimer's prescriptions for multiple members of Congress. With little incentive for an elected official to disclose such an illness, it is difficult to know just how pervasive the problem is.

This study isn't very impressive, from what I can see. There's little rigor to it. The author admits that the subject is not well-studied which means that all of his conclusions are really just speculations derived from assumptions. All of these speculations and assumptions seem fair and likely to be valid, but this "study" doesn't seem to be much more than the author observing that people with dementia lose executive control and are often absent-minded and hey, that might lead to an inadvertent release of classified information, right?

But we need some pressure to push some of these alte kachers out of office, and the "study" adds to that. As we can't/won't amend the Constitution, we at least need some social and political pressure for the dead-enders to finally give up their grasp on power.

Privately Admits That Biden Is Too Old to be President (or Even " " " President " " ")&bodytext=I did not expect Ron Johnson, who was earlier suspected of being liberal-leaning RINO, to evolve into one of the most based and ballsy senators we have. Senator Tommy Tuberville is objecting to unanimous consent to approve military promotions, to...&topic=world_news"> posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:05 PM

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