Donald Trump looks Old.

[Shadowy Man]

As Matt gaetz would say; it’s now about how old you are, it’s about how old who you are feeling up.

FIFY

I was aiming for more parallel construction and subtlety, but “thanks”.

 

[pood]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard.

You’ve said this before, and I’m sure it’s true, but how, pray, did these people come to the conclusion that Trump represents their interests or gives a damn about the at all?

 

[Politesse]

If you restrict your vote to people whose adult children belong in a youth group, your only option this cycle will be Donald Trump.

I'm aware, and it makes me worry about the future of this country. Am I really supposed to trust the leadership of the free world to someone who still thinks of computers, cordless telephones, and automatic gear shifts as new technology? As far as I'm concerned, I'm almost getting too old to be an effective politician, but apparently I'm supposed to think my parents and others of their generation are the Youth of Today? I love my parents, but they were the Youth of Today half a century ago.

Time continues to pass, no matter how young you imagine you are in your mind's eye. I thought one of the marks of the wisdom one supposedly acquires with age is learning to call a spade a spade. Learning that there are some things you just can't change. That life isn't always fair, and it isn't necessarily quitting to recognize your limits. I've sure learned that the hard way, more than once in my life. I don't understand how the boomers all seem to have skipped that life lesson. What were you all DOING in your thirties and forties, if not learning that men are mortal and life is hard? Do you all just not notice that your old classmates are dropping like flies to the diseases and injuries of age? You had a recession. You had wars. There were opportunities to learn. But all these aging politicians are banking heavily on the agingg electorate's willingness to believe delusions and conspiracy theories, and in a broader sense, trading on a sense of constant denialism about aging and death, a general refusal to plan for the future that your grandchildren are already living in. Climate change, cyber warfare, the death of manufacturing... It's not just that our sitting politicians are unaware of recent changes, they are unaware of technologies and challenges we've known about since the 1980s. Forty years ago. You know RFK Jr still thinks AIDS was caused by Poppers?

 

[Politesse]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard.

You’ve said this before, and I’m sure it’s true, but how, pray, did these people come to the conclusion that Trump represents their interests or gives a damn about the at all?

Because he says he does. And if you can't trust a shady New York real estate developer turned late bloomer daytime television debutant, who can you trust? I swear people turn their brains off whenever he opens his mouth, it's the only explanation.

 

[Elixir]

What were you all DOING in your thirties and forties, if not learning that men are mortal and life is hard?

I wasted that time making priceless memories of The Green Room (surf reference), building and operating a recording studio, getting married, and not worrying too terribly much about politics.

 

[Politesse]

Hm. I mean, I did my time getting married and starting a business, too. Neither process convinced me of my immortality, quite the opposite. Never did enjoy surfing or skiing, is that the difference?

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard.

You’ve said this before, and I’m sure it’s true, but how, pray, did these people come to the conclusion that Trump represents their interests or gives a damn about the at all?

Who better than a Manhattan real estate developer with an MBA from Penn to fight the Ivy League coastal elites on behalf of the brain-dead, I mean common man?

 

[robnisch]

For a long time, the oldest American president had been Andrew Jackson, who was 61 when he took office...

Yeah, well, when Jackson took office at 61, average US life expectancy (from birth) was 40- something iirc.

sure, but those expectancies include a high infant mortality rate, right? It’s not a measure of how old old people got.

Like the life expectancy for men is lower, because they do more dumb stuff.

 

[Toni]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard.

You’ve said this before, and I’m sure it’s true, but how, pray, did these people come to the conclusion that Trump represents their interests or gives a damn about the at all?

Who better than a Manhattan real estate developer with an MBA from Penn to fight the Ivy League coastal elites on behalf of the brain-dead, I mean common man?

I know, right? But again, calling them brain dead works against winning them over.

I’ve never seen an episode of The Apprentice but I’m guessing they got the impression he was willing to invest in and mentor ordinary, hard working folks and that he was a realist. And a successful businessman. And yes always promote himself as a self made man which is patently false.

I’ve never understood how anyone could ever listen to him and not hear the self-aggrandizement or the absolute falsehoods.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

I’ve never understood how anyone could ever listen to him and not hear the self-aggrandizement or the absolute falsehoods.

It's because his worshippers feel and think similarly themselves about themselves. It's as some have said, if these people don't get what they deserve there will be hell to pay. Trumpo should have our allegiance because he deserves our allegiance. It's that simple. And these people who worship him also deserve our allegiance. It's one great big authoritarian pity party.

 

[laughing dog]

Anger, whining and saying stupid shit is very energy draining. It has finally caught up with him.

 

[ZiprHead]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard. Here, there are plenty of posters who post disparagingly about people living in flyover country or indeed, outside of urban areas. Of course, there are those uber wealthy people who support Trump because he will favor policies which favor them: anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-taxes--for the wealthy. And of course, Trump appeals to the isolationists and those with internalized racism, homophobia and sexism.

Speaking of representation made me think of this:

 

[Playball40]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard. Here, there are plenty of posters who post disparagingly about people living in flyover country or indeed, outside of urban areas. Of course, there are those uber wealthy people who support Trump because he will favor policies which favor them: anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-taxes--for the wealthy. And of course, Trump appeals to the isolationists and those with internalized racism, homophobia and sexism.

Please tell me what policies have harmed/overlooked them that hasn't also harmed overlooked every middle working class American. So sorry, but that's not a reason to support trump.

 

[Playball40]

Trump's latest Mar a Lago press conference was as disastrous as Biden's debate performance. For one thing the Orange didn't look as orange to me. He looked whiter and pale. His eyes looked closer together and his face looked more wrinkled. His shoulders looked more slouched and he displayed a lot less energy. Quite frankly I was very surprised at the change and am wondering if anyone else noticed this.

I hadn't really been paying much attention to him, been more interested in his VP choice. Pundits are saying lots of things like he's lost his message because Harris is doing so well and polling so well. They're saying he's actively looking to shake up his staff to regain his lost edge. I have to admit it looks like all they're saying is true after watching the disastrous press conference.

Does anyone else notice this big change? I wonder if that shot in the ear he took in PA has had a real effect on him. If not then age is finally catching up to him because he looks weak and pale and tired. And that's a good thing in my view.

At 78, if he wins, he'll be the oldest individual ever elected to the office. By comparison, the previous contender for the rank was Ronald Reagan. But Reagan was only 77 when he left office.

A recent news article described Harris and Walz as "the younger generation in Washington" and my eyes have never rolled so hard. She's 59, he's 60. They're getting mailings from the AARP and I'm supposed to see them as the Voice of the Youth? I don't hate old people, but I'm not going to pretend that I can't see the emperor's clothes, here. For a long time, the oldest American president had been Andrew Jackson, who was 61 when he took office...

They are Gen X NOT Baby Boomer!!!!!

 

[Toni]

it's difficult to understand how others can possibly consider him a charismatic, intelligent, and godly, upstanding moral man.

When you consider the caliber of his worshippers it isn't really so difficult. His worshippers tend to be emotionally driven, in a way as blind to their own narcissism as their orange god.

I don't think it is fair to call all of the MAGAs as being 'emotionally driven' or 'narcissism.' Tim Walz has said what I've said for a long time: There are large numbers of people who, for various reasons, often reasons of geography, who feel as though the federal government has overlooked them or legislated against their interests. They don't feel heard. Here, there are plenty of posters who post disparagingly about people living in flyover country or indeed, outside of urban areas. Of course, there are those uber wealthy people who support Trump because he will favor policies which favor them: anti-environment, anti-labor, anti-taxes--for the wealthy. And of course, Trump appeals to the isolationists and those with internalized racism, homophobia and sexism.

Please tell me what policies have harmed/overlooked them that hasn't also harmed overlooked every middle working class American. So sorry, but that's not a reason to support trump.

Please do not misunderstand me: I am disgusted and heartbroken that anybody with a thinking brain ever entertained the idea of Trump in charge of anything. And I feel even worse given the support he gets from people he would scrape off the bottom of his shoes. Or have someone do it for him.

Policies that provide social services for immigrants and immigrant children hit lower income areas harder than wealthier areas. It is expensive to need to hire interpreters for different language speakers and at all levels of schooling. Small town/rural school districts struggle to appropriately fund their school systems already. Having an extra financial burden because of newcomers is hard to swallow. Similar strains on hospitals and clinics and other infrastructure. Increase in demand for low income housing where this is already an issue. That's just one area. I am not denying that there is some racism and xenophobia at play here but mostly, it is a loss of a way of life that people who live there have valued for generations: people knowing each other, helping each other when help is needed.

Fracking: Two different sides at least. On one hand, it can provide decent paying jobs for people hungry for decent paying jobs. OTOH, it causes a lot of pollution of water and air. No one wants to live near a fracking project but there are competing interests, long and short term. And of course, the money leaves and goes out of town. Even adjacent industries such as sand mining (common near where I live) leave deep scars on the land, fill the air with silica dust that makes it unhealthy to play outside (this is what country kids do) or work outside or hang your laundry outside. It makes it difficult to simply enjoy your home which you must keep buttoned up really tight to try to mitigate the dust.

Farm prices and supports are always a huge bone of contention. It's not all market driven but is also driven by policies and prices established by people who live far away. Property taxes increase to support increased demands on infrastructure and help drive farmers out of business. The area where I grew up used to be nothing but lovely farmland with an occasional small town. Now, it's pocked with warehouses and fulfillment centers. Staffed by large numbers of people who are mostly immigrants with dark skin and 'funny' religions and weird languages and food and customs. (I'm in favor of increased diversity. One thing that drove me crazy as a kid was how everybody all looked the same and I was certain I could walk into any home in my town and know exactly where everything was in the kitchen and which was the junk drawer because the houses were almost all alike, just as the people were. Heck, I was related to a significant portion of my corner of the county I grew up in. At the same time, the school district has seen a massive influx of money raised from taxes those warehouse owners pay. And of course the schools greatly benefit from having a more diverse student population but it does make at least some of the white folks whose families have lived there for generations feel pushed aside. My own sibling is talking about wanting to move elsewhere not because of the increased diversity (they agree with me that this is a strong benefit) but because of the increased traffic. Virtually no more mom and pop shops but endless low tier strip malls. Not even nicer stuff: just junk. More crime. No more farm stands. Everything that was charming and cozy and friendly has been wiped out. This happened decades earlier but my father's cousin owned a lovely farm with a beautiful old farmhouse on the top of a hill. Decades ago, an interstate ran right down the middle of his land, making much of it inaccessible and unsuitable for farming. Of course he was paid nicely for it but I remember how it broke him. The farm was his life and had been in his family for generations. Money doesn't compensate for everything. And I remember my father who was simultaneously a bit envious of the big amount of cash but at the same time, mourned with his cousin over the loss. The land was taken by imminent domain so my cousin had no choice in the matter except whether or not to try to continue to farm what land was left. I don't think non-farm people quite understand just how much that means to people: It's tradition, it's a way of life, it is life for ....unfortunately a smaller and smaller number of people. Imagine your grandfather or great grandfather built a lovely family home over the course of a decade or more, using timber he felled on land he cleared, carefully designing a dream home for his family, something to leave to the next generation which added to and improved the family place--and then it is simply wiped out by decisions made by someone who has never seen the place and does not care about anything other than $ to be made. I cannot even drive around that corner of the county anymore and know where I am unless I see a road sign. No more turning at this farm or that or by that red barn or where they always keep horses (or cows or pigs, depending). It just does not exist anymore and is replaced by houses that are all made of ticky tack and all look the same and strip malls and places that sell cheap stuff for not much money but sell a lot of it, most of it ending up in landfills in a couple of years.

Hospitals are closed down to increase the 'efficiency' of health care delivery to regions, often leaving women no choice but to travel hours to and from prenatal appointments and for labor/delivery. Labor and delivery is one of the first services to go when hospitals decide to get 'efficient.' School districts similarly consolidate and close down smaller buildings and bus children further. Happens even in my town(different state altogether than where I grew up). When we moved here, my kids could easily walk to elementary school, middle school and high school. Now they could still walk to the same high school but the elementary school is now apartments (they are finally putting in a playground again that had been in the school yard and served the entire neighborhood of kids and is now almost entirely a parking lot, and lots of signs that say keep out. In the process of converting the school to housing (definitely a need--can't argue about that), they ripped out tens of thousands of dollars of playground equipment paid for by the local PTA fundraisers. What is going in is not as much or as nice but it is something. A small bone to throw to the neighborhood. Kids now spend an hour a day on buses going back and forth to buildings....

By and large, one way or another, jobs and businesses are leaving small towns and rural areas as big boxes and big corporations take over. And everything looks exactly like the next town down the road.

Obviously, things change over time. It's often but not always progress but even progress has its winners and losers. A lot of people feel like they are on the losing end of the stick, losing what they value to nameless bureaucrats and CEOs who look over their family land or town and see $$ instead of lives lived.

 

[bilby]

A 40 year old male in 1850 could expect to live another 27 years or so...

...While today he could expect another 37 years. Ten years more ain't much; Even less so when you look at the expected future years before incapacity, rather than years remaining before death.

Additional life expectancy at 40 is today only a few years greater than life expectancy at birth minus 40 years, but prior to WWII, infant mortality meant that the difference was much greater.

According to Wikipedia:

the life expectancy at birth among 13th-century English nobles [was] 30–33, but having surviving to the age of 21, a male member of the English aristocracy could expect to live [...] to age 64

...and by the age of 40, they would have added a few more years to that expected age of death, simply by not dying in the intervening 19 years.

Life expectancy at birth is radically higher today than in the medieval period; But life expectancy at 40 has increased far less.

According to this actuarial table, a male New Yorker has a Life Expectancy at Birth of 74.14 years; By 40, this has risen only to 76.64, an increase of 2.5 years. Compare to the 13th Century nobles (above), who increased life expectancy by more than thirty years, just by making it to 21; Rich white men (measured only if they survived to adulthood) have increased their lifespans only by about twelve years since the C13th.

From the same table, an average modern male New Yorker has to be past his 78th birthday to have a less than even chance of surviving two presidential terms; He needs to be past his 88th birthday to have a less than even chance of surviving one four year term; And he has to reach 111 years of age to have a better than even chance of not seeing his next birthday.

Of course, it seems likely that Trump is less heathy than the average, so that's also a factor.

 

[bilby]

Like the life expectancy for men is lower, because they do more dumb stuff.

That's true for young men; It's only true for old men if in "dumb stuff" you include things like saying "I'm sure it's nothing, or "I'm just getting old", rather than going to see a doctor when they notice changes in their bodies.

I agree that that's dumb, but it's not "Drive at 160mph while drunk out of your skull" dumb.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Obviously, things change over time. It's often but not always progress but even progress has its winners and losers. A lot of people feel like they are on the losing end of the stick, losing what they value to nameless bureaucrats and CEOs who look over their family land or town and see $$ instead of lives lived.

That may be true of some people. I don't know anyone in such straits. The orange worshippers I know have all greatly benefitted from liberal legislation in the past be it republican or conservative. And they could care less because they take those things for granted and move on to blindly deny them to others. They're selfish pricks in my opinion just like their orange god and most are highly religious.

 

[Elixir]

a male New Yorker has a Life Expectancy at Birth of 74.14 years

I’m 74.43 yrs old, and born near NY.
Been nice chatting y’all!

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

The Old Orange Man has Dementia

“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”

Are these the words of a sane person? Or of an aging paranoid megalomaniac?

I think it's obvious that the orange fascist is suffering from dementia.