Donald Trump, stable genius, claims that Joe Biden is suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s, that is, when he’s not claiming that Biden is a tool of the “radical left.” Watch this conversation and make your own judgment. Ask yourself how Trump would fare without a script on a teleprompter. The film also serves to remind us of another Trump characteristic: He is utterly without empathy. He despises what he calls “losers.” It is impossible to forget the time he mocked a disabled journalist at one of his rallies. It’s easy to remember that he called John McCain a “loser” because he was a POW.
This is a most interesting unscripted discussion between Joe Biden and Ady Barkan.
Ady is a brilliant progressive activist who was a supporter of Sanders, Warren, and Medicare for all.
In 2016, he was stricken with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and is completely disabled. He is dying by the day.
He asks tough questions.
I recommend the conversation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for this interview. Biden handled himself quite well. Biden has vowed to make meaningful changes in delivering health care. I do not know if improving the ACA, which is already unaffordable for many, is the answer. I did not hear Biden make any commitment to offering a public option which would greatly reduce the out of pocket expenses for most Americans. Biden claimed his plan will go beyond Medicare for All and a public option, and it will increase “flexibility.” As we know, politicians engage in “double speak,” and the devil is in the details. Whatever the plan is, it has to be better than what the GOP will offer.
LikeLike
I visited my grandmother regularly for two years before her death when she had dementia. Sometimes she was fine, sometimes she wasn’t. One friendly interview does not prove that Biden is fine. There are dozens of videos of him stumbling over words, losing his train of thought, confusing basic things, making obvious mis-statements and even losing track of the Teleprompter. Democrats themselves were willing to admit that Biden was not all there before they inexplicably coalesced around him.
In any case, if Biden doesn’t have dementia and Trump does, then you’re all for a series of live debates between them, right?
LikeLike
Dienne,
I assume you are voting for Trump.
LikeLike
I assume you know better because I’ve said otherwise about a millions times.
LikeLike
Vote Biden because the people who say Biden is demented are telling us that Biden’s dementia means that Bernie Sanders and AOC will run this country!
Trump’s dementia means that we will have 4 more years of the same or worse.
LikeLike
NYCPSP,
This is a repeat of 2016, and I won’t let it go on. Your reply to dienne was edited. No more personal exchanges or attacks on other commenters. Please.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for editing and I apologize that you had to take the time to do so. I always recognize your absolute right to simply not post something or quickly delete any post you find inappropriate, so it was very generous of you to edit it instead.
But is this even true? “Democrats themselves were willing to admit that Biden was not all there before they inexplicably coalesced around him.” Were you or anyone else you know regularly “admitting” that Biden “was not all there” in the past? Because I don’t recall that at all.
LikeLike
Trump claimed that Kamala Harris will be running the country in six months if Biden wins.
LikeLike
Trump wants White’s to be terrified that a black person might “take over.” Has he forgotten that we had a black President for eight years and the world did not come to an end? Of course, he is so envious of Obama that he tries to blot out his memory.
LikeLike
“Democrats themselves were willing to admit that Biden was not all there before they inexplicably coalesced around him.” end quote
Inexplicably!!!???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Biden won and he’s the only person who stands between us and the bottomless pit of Trumpian authoritarianism. There is NOTHING inexplicable about the choice we face: a decent human being (Biden) or a wannabe Duterte/Putin. Have you not been hearing the things that Trump, Caputo and Roger Stone have been saying? They are calling for violence, civil war and martial law and the corruption of the electoral process. I will vote for Biden any day to get rid of this vicious racist/gangster in the White House. My God, what does it take before you (Dienne) wake up, with all due respect.
LikeLike
Joe Jersey,
I wish there was a button to “like” this post one hundred million times.
Thank you – I am so grateful that you so ably and succinctly expressed what is true.
LikeLike
So much that is really refreshing about this:
In stark contrast to Don the Con,
Biden is willing to hold this frank and respectful and concrete conversation with someone who disagrees with him.
Biden has universal health coverage as a goal.
Biden respects science.
Biden can quote Kierkegaard.
BIDEN: Well, as Kierkegaard wrote. . . .
TRUMP: Kirky Guard? Deodorant, right? I use the best deodorant.
ME: No deodorant, Mr. President, can overcome the stench of your administration.
LikeLike
Does everyone know that Joe Biden has had a speech impediment . . . he stuttered . . . for most of his life?
This is why he liked the movie: “The King’s Speech” so much. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a dramatization of the real king of England who took over after his brother abdicated; and was king during World War II when he had to make many speeches. The story is about his relationship with a rather unorthodox speech therapist.
But you won’t hear that on Fox News. CBK
LikeLike
Fox News hasn’t figured out how to demonize Biden for his speech impediment, yet.
I think that the Biden campaign made a brilliant move by having that young man with a stutter speak at the Convention. The Democrats showed Americans how smart, thoughtful and appealing people with stutters are, when the Republicans had hoped to make one of their big issues that people with stutters have something so wrong with their brain functions that their fitness for office should certainly be in doubt.
The Republicans had surely been planning a big propaganda campaign in which they questioned Biden’s fitness for the presidency due to his stutter, with the innuendo that means that voters should be very wary of voting for a candidate whose brain function can’t be trusted….,,
Without that young man, the demonization of Biden for his stutter would have begun.
LikeLike
NYCPSP, I edited this response to remove tit for tat response. Stop it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Diane,
Thank you. Your edit makes it much better! I will be more careful of what I write.
It there anyway to edit or remove the “tat”, especially when the “tat” is false anti-Biden propaganda designed with only one purpose – to push a right wing narrative and convince people not to turn out for Biden so Trump wins?
I apologize for responding in kind. But that “tat” was exactly the same false narrative that was posted here and elsewhere throughout the fall of 2016. It is a large part of the reason why every post-election poll in 2016 said that a majority of voters believed it was the democrat who was the corrupt and dishonest candidate whose word can’t be trusted! It is very dangerous for progressives to legitimize those attacks instead of shutting them down because then people actually believe there is a real “debate” to be had about how demented Biden is instead of understanding that the people who say that are simply lying to push an agenda.
I just feel that it is too important of an election to legitimize the false narrative when it truly is nothing but false propaganda. Surely you can’t believe these posts are to “educate” us all about what is true?? What purpose can they possibly serve except to keep voters from supporting Biden?
Can anyone possibly believe that Biden is the demented one of the two candidates? That kind of attack should be marginalized, not responded to as if there really is a debate about which of the two candidates is more demented and dangerous, with no one really knowing which of them was more dangerous.
LikeLike
NYC I have people in my family who mirror the right-wing propaganda–they are saying that Biden “slurs his words” and so is mentally deficient. I told them about the stutter problem . . . no response. . . . skips off like a flat stone on a smooth lake . . .they just find something else to manufacture and complain about. CBK
LikeLike
This was a moving conversation with uncommon candor.
Back in graduate school, one of my professors was diagnosed with ALS. He died about six months after he could no longer converse with his students. In the1960s there was very little technology of the kind enabling this wonderful exchange.
I have no expectation of benefiting from any health care plan from either party but I do wish that Medicare for All, or a near cousin, was available for everyone. Private insurance is a high-profit racket with the ROI rarely in favor of the insured.
Biden is not a perfect candidate but Trump MUST be defeated.
LikeLike
Laura and Diane I have found myself thinking three things about this and other blogs lately. So it’s in the vein of “just some thoughts” that I offer them:
1) Like you, for me: Biden is “the man” . . . regardless. Ditto for down-ticket democrats.
2) In this brief time-window before the election, all complaints about and dissing of “the democrats” or the Biden-ticket should be diminished, put in the context of #1 above, or avoided altogether. . . just till the election is over; and
3) Any NEW persons posting negative stuff will immediately come under the suspicion of being Russian disrupters-aggravators or other lying propaganda-wielding bloggers and baitors. CBK
LikeLike
Agreed.
LikeLike
Thank you, CBK.
LikeLike
According to the Wikipedia page on “2020 US Presidential Election” , which says voters on November 3, 2020 will select electors (Electoral College) who select the (new) president on December 14, 2020. 🤔
Why the December date? Why hasn’t the Electoral College been abolished? 🤔
LikeLike
The Electotsl Vollege can be abolished only by a Constitutional amendment. It gives power to small states and they won’t pass an amendment.
LikeLike
Thanks! 🙂✔️
LikeLike
The formal votes of electors always takes place in December. The timing of this was used as one of the excuses for the speed of the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore.
LikeLike
Thanks. 🙂✔️
LikeLike
Comparing Trump to Biden would be like comparing Death Valley to Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
Trump is the valley of death where nothing can live, a toxic place where one breath can kill you.
But, Biden offers the country a healthy forest and clean air to breathe.
LikeLike
Before The Reagans took over, Amy Carter baked a cake, which exploded all over the White House oven. 😅😂🤣
LikeLike
Joe Biden is a nice, polite, compassionate candidate. He reminds me of Jimmy Carter. 🙂✔️
LikeLike
Joe and Jill Biden will be great in the wh.
I can’t wait.
Bring on sage. Cleanse that place of the vile and stench of trump and his unmentionables.
LikeLike
Thanks, Diane. I enjoyed the conversation between a Biden and Barkan. 👍👍👍
LikeLike
Joe Biden should ask “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” 😁
LikeLike
This from the “New York Times” this morning. Gates Sr. quote below is relevant to public education.
“Bill Gates Sr., right, who helped lead his son’s philanthropy, has been described as ‘the conscience of the Gates family.’ Lucas Jackson/Reuters
“Remembering Bill Gates Sr.
“The father of Microsoft’s co-founder died on Monday at the age of 94. Though best known in his later years as the man who oversaw his son’s enormous philanthropy, he was also a successful lawyer who played a major role in the life of another future billionaire, Howard Schultz of Starbucks.
“Mr. Gates Sr. laid the foundation for his son’s charitable giving, starting with an $80,000 check from what was then the William H. Gates Foundation to a cancer program in the Seattle area. Mr. Gates Sr. laid out his philosophy on philanthropy in his 2009 book, ‘Showing Up for Life,’ this way:
“‘Those who claim that the wealth they have accumulated is theirs to pass on without returning anything back to the American system show a shocking lack of appreciation for all that the system and public monies did to help them create wealth.‘
“As a lawyer, he helped Mr. Schultz take control of Starbucks. Mr. Gates Sr. co-founded what became the prominent Seattle law firm K&L Gates and was president of the Washington State Bar Association. One of his career achievements was helping Mr. Schultz beat out a competitor to buy Starbucks in 1987.
“• Mr. Schultz recounted Mr. Gates Sr. taking him to his rival bidder’s office: ‘All I remember him saying is: ‘”You should be ashamed of yourself that you’re going to steal this kid’s dream. It’s not going to happen. You and I both know this is not going to happen.’ ”’ The investor quickly backed down and Mr. Schultz bought Starbucks for $3.8 million.” CBK
LikeLike