Don’t Worry About John Fetterman. He’s Got This.
From all indications, his cognition is rock solid, and that’s ultimately all that matters.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – In case you missed the concern trolling and garment rending on cable news, John Fetterman had a stroke back in May. It’s old news but the trauma has moderately affected his ability to speak fluidly, as we all observed during his Pennsylvania Senate debate against novelty TV doctor Mehmet Oz.
The thing is, he’s recovering. There’s no indication the stroke has impacted his cognitive abilities. And it’s quite possible he’ll fully recover his prior speaking chops, especially after the rigors of the campaign trail are behind him. On the other hand, Dr. Oz will continue to be the same dog-killing, anti-choice, carpetbagging poseur he always has been -- an insufferable, entitled political tourist with zero governing experience.
Furthermore, Fetterman’s stroke hasn’t been kept secret. We all know it happened. There’s no cover-up, and despite his obvious issues, he agreed to participate in a televised debate in spite of it all. He’s been honest about his medical condition, and he can still do the job.
So, what’s Donald Trump’s excuse?
Here’s the one-term loser’s greatest hits as compiled by The Daily Show. Has anyone from Trump’s rancid orbit of toxic weirdos and fanboys ever explained this?
My favorite? “Infantroopen.”
Were Trump’s reoccurring short-circuits caused by a series of transient ischemic attacks? Were there drugs involved? We don’t know and we never will. Did the political news media, especially Fox News, spend days covering each glitch, endlessly ruminating over whether Trump was capable of handling the job? No. One of the clips in The Daily Show’s video was the “God Blessh the United Shassshe” tag at the end of his speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. We never got a believable explanation for that one either:
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the alleged drunk who was the Physician to the President from 2013 through 2018, said he “inadvertently dried up [Trump’s] secretions” that day. First, eewwww. Second, how can we believe this coming from a doctor who claimed Trump could live to be 200-years-old?
And then there’s House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. The great irony of McCarthy residing on the short-list to be the next Speaker of the House should the Republicans win a majority on November 8 is that McCarthy has trouble speaking. Back in 2015, he was delivering prepared foreign policy remarks before the John Hay Initiative when he completely imploded. For example:
"This 'safe zone' would create a stem a flow of refugees... Unlike during the surge in Iraq when Petraeus and Crocker had an effective politically strategy to match the military strategy."
"We have isolated Israel, while bolding places like Iran."
"In the past few years alone, I have visited Poland, Hungria, Estonia, Russia and Georgia..."
Hungria. Which is north of Freedonia and adjacent to that fake island where Balki from "Perfect Strangers" came from.
"We don't have the same as difficult decision that this White House is managing the decline and putting us in tough decisions for the future."
"It defies belief that the president would allow the ban on Iranian oil exports to be lifted. And also stand by while Russia blackmails an entire continent, all the while keeping the place of the band on America."
No stroke that we’re aware of. No dried up secretions. No additional signs since then that he suffers from dyslexia or aphasia. No explanation what-so-ever. I suppose it slipped down the Great America Memory Hole because it didn’t occur during a televised debate, nor was it during political silly-season prior to an election. No one really investigated further. But something definitely happened. It wasn’t normal, and neither were Trump’s glitches.
The upshot here is that Fetterman’s speech patterns should improve given the time. As a freshman senator, soaring televised speeches won’t necessarily be on his schedule. From all indications, his cognition is rock solid, and that’s ultimately all that matters.
Meantime, Democratic voter turnout is overperforming in Pennsylvania, compared with the big presidential election of 2020. Plus, Fetterman’s campaign collected more than $2 million in contributions Tuesday night and Wednesday alone. That’s all good news. So don’t worry, I think Fetterman’s got this.
Read the latest for Banter Members:
Capitalism And Nuclear Weapons: Just The Right Dose, Please.
Our society is predicated on the existence of an economic system that destroys the natural world, and weapons that guarantee our own destruction.
by Ben Cohen
After World War II, a new global conflict emerged between competing economic ideologies that would dominate history for the next 40 years. America capitalism and Soviet communism fought a proxy war fueled by the development of highly advanced nuclear weapons to deter the other system from taking over.
Ultimately, the West’s combination of liberalized market and nuclear weapons won, leaving a new world order where capitalism reigned supreme.
A highly centralized economy played a major role in the downfall of Communism in Russia, rotting the system from the inside as Russians defied the often ludicrous dictates of their government. As economists Andre Shleiffer and Robert W. Vishny argued, rigid planning, excessive price distortions, and repressed inflation “led to a breakdown of traditional economic ties and coordination mechanisms in the Soviet economy”.
The fear of an external enemy could not save the Soviet empire from collapse, highlighting a society’s need for at least a degree of economic (and political) freedom. With nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union had a monopoly on violence, but not its own economy.
To what degree then, is the Western world held together by free markets and a monopoly on violence? Is one more important than the other, and what happens when we attempt to move away from a system that is essentially based on greed and fear? Furthermore, with our increased understanding of humanity’s environmental impact on the planet, is capitalism and the existence of nuclear weapons compatible with our own existence? Continue reading here.
Also out for Banter Members:
I live in Pennsylvania and have already voted blue all the way! I do not regret at all my vote for John Fetterman. We Pennsylvanians know him and have seen his improving health. Oz is NOT from here and is the lowest form of human being as evidenced by HIS performance at the debate.
“From all indications, his cognition is rock solid, and that’s ultimately all that matters.”
If only it were. But this is America, the country where the cognition of most citizens is very limited.