Not much to go off of there. He's of a generation and demographic that doesn't share too much. Sounds like it's both severe and aggressive (having spread to his bones), but also manageable via...
Not much to go off of there. He's of a generation and demographic that doesn't share too much.
Sounds like it's both severe and aggressive (having spread to his bones), but also manageable via hormone treatments? I am not familiar with that combo.
The gist is that certain cancers are responsible to hormones so in the absence of those hormones (typically testosterone or another androgen) the cancer doesn't grow. Perhaps ironic in our current...
The gist is that certain cancers are responsible to hormones so in the absence of those hormones (typically testosterone or another androgen) the cancer doesn't grow.
Perhaps ironic in our current environment, but hormone blockers are the typical treatment in this case.
It may be that even with that, there's no surviving the cancer, but it might provide him with a longer life than other treatment options with it already being metastisized, and more a comfortable/better quality of life than chemo especially at his age. Possibly letting him die of non-cancer causes later.
/Not a doctor, just a member of the "Fuck Cancer" club
Just life experience so I may have misunderstood something but I'm more familiar with it being a thing with breast cancer and I've seen older folks with more medical issues choose the chemo route,...
Just life experience so I may have misunderstood something but I'm more familiar with it being a thing with breast cancer and I've seen older folks with more medical issues choose the chemo route, shortening their lives and leaving them less comfortable rather than otherwise. I also had a friend whose cancer hit her bones and then her brain at a very young age.
My grandfather's prostate cancer was caught very early by random chance, when it was just a tiny spec. They tried to nip it in the bud, as it were, but it still spread to his pelvis — which, as...
My grandfather's prostate cancer was caught very early by random chance, when it was just a tiny spec. They tried to nip it in the bud, as it were, but it still spread to his pelvis — which, as you suggest, ultimately killed him.
He pursued absolutely every treatment that he could get his hands on, starting with accepted medical treatments that slowed it down but did not stop it, and finally switching to alternative medicine out of desperation (one of which, a heavy fruit-based diet, substantially increased the rate of spread and likely took a year or more off his life).
That was over 15 years ago, though, so fingers crossed that there are better treatment options available now.
Waiting 2 more days to hear about a dear relatives final count of their cancer antigen test after six rounds of chemo. If its under 63 they may live another 5 years or so, if its more than that,...
Waiting 2 more days to hear about a dear relatives final count of their cancer antigen test after six rounds of chemo. If its under 63 they may live another 5 years or so, if its more than that, not likely to make it very long as it means the cancer will likely come back with a vengeance.
They found out about their cancer the day their spouse retired. Definitely f'd over their retirement plans. Crazy.
Carpe diem - seize the day. Who knows if we're here tomorrow?
First of all, cancer sucks. I condemn cancer. And while I am not a Biden fan, I do feel bad for anyone who has to deal with the horrible combo of cancer and cognitive issues. Trust me, I've seen...
First of all, cancer sucks. I condemn cancer. And while I am not a Biden fan, I do feel bad for anyone who has to deal with the horrible combo of cancer and cognitive issues. Trust me, I've seen it firsthand.
However, if you can indulge me for a moment as I put on my tinfoil hat, I would like to point out the odd coincidence that this news is dropping two days before Jake Tapper's book on Biden's mental decline is set to release. Here's a brutal excerpt that The New Yorker put out a few days ago. I don't know, it's hard not to view this as an attempt to take some of the incoming heat off of the former president and his inner circle.
Tbh there's zero purpose in talking about Biden's cognitive decline when the current president's cognitive ability is mostly going entirely unremarked on. He shouldn't have tried to run again and...
Tbh there's zero purpose in talking about Biden's cognitive decline when the current president's cognitive ability is mostly going entirely unremarked on.
He shouldn't have tried to run again and should have transitioned earlier and all but I have such little tolerance for essentially a gossip book after the fact. It's like all the people that worked for Trump, left or got fired and then wrote a tell all about how awful Trump is.
Only speaking up afterwards, and only to sell a book is a far more suspicious motive than anything about a cancer announcement. Old guy old. We get it. Gestures at the Oval Office Instead of Ouroboros-ing the left once again maybe we could keep our eye on the ball.
(Plus the bullshit ableism about wheelchair use that's already started due to this book is absolutely fucking infuriating. )
I 100% disagree with you. For starters, it's not the "crime," it's the coverup. I don't really give a shit about the current state of Biden's cognitive abilities, I care more about all the people...
I 100% disagree with you.
For starters, it's not the "crime," it's the coverup. I don't really give a shit about the current state of Biden's cognitive abilities, I care more about all the people who knew about them and didn't do anything about it as he ran for a second term. That isn't something we should gloss over, especially considering the fact that it is the single biggest reason why Donald Trump is president today. Those people need to be held accountable, the same way former Trump staffers should be held accountable for not doing enough to stand in the way of his bullshit. The inner circle obviously carries most of the blame, but if you read the piece or the other reporting on this, the number of people who had some knowledge of his decline appears to be quite high. Not to mention the fact that polling showed the vast majority of voters thought he was too old to run again back in 2022. Jesus, I feel like Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight.
I couldn't imagine a more perfect illustration of the rot that is at the core of the Democratic party and the broken thinking that has lead to roughly two decades of disaster.
There are only a handful of tools that can fix the avalanche of problems that Donald Trump and the Republican party are creating for this country. Unfortunately, our biggest and best tool is the Democratic Party. I'm no handyman, but I know it's hard to fix shit with broken tools. Our focus, if we ever want to make America great again, should be on making sure there is a strong and capable opposition party. If you ask me, that's keeping your eye on the ball.
(also, I don't know what your talking about regarding wheelchair ableism, but the greatest Democrat of all time used a wheelchair so I won't put up with it either)
If it wasn't a gossip book full of anonymous sources published six months after an election, maybe there's a point. But the accounts are also already being contested. The best way to hold those...
If it wasn't a gossip book full of anonymous sources published six months after an election, maybe there's a point. But the accounts are also already being contested.
The best way to hold those people accountable isn't buying (or even talking about) Tapper's book of gossip. It's by being politically active and supporting candidates not beholden to the machine. There's zero accountability from the press going on and on about how bad Biden was and ignoring the current president's active cognitive decline. Tapper is certainly not being held accountable. Reagan's administration wasn't held accountable for his senility. Why would a book change that?
Vote in local elections, canvas for the people primarying the establishment candidate, speak at city council meetings, call your senators and representatives, etc. Accountability lies there, not with people enriching themselves off not saying anything until they wrote a book later. Fixing the Democratic party lies there, not in continuing to parrot the same shit the GOP is saying.
I'm not saying forgive and forget, I'm saying stop talking shit and act. Refocus the narrative. People are being sent to death camps. The government is acting like habeus corpus is a fucking option. If my choice in November had been Biden, I'd have voted for him regardless of any senility, because fuck having Stephen Miller in the white house directing policy. Biden wasn't the candidate and people still didn't show up to vote.
Let's talk about the current President not knowing anything about who he nominated for Surgeon General. And if you're in the Democratic party leadership with the ability to directly hold those people accountable, great, but I see zero service to the rest of us to circle the drain on it if change and accountability is the goal. Just primary them, fire them, and move on.
A researched news article would have been sufficient if there was news. But he wrote a book to make bank and there are no journalistic standards in publishing political tell-alls. The book is only "the ball" if we're labrador retrievers being toyed with.
As for the ableism there was apparently concern about Biden's potential need for a wheelchair and how that would look and there have been ableist comments made about that already ableist discussion. FDR had to deal with the same shit.
If you think the Democratic party leadership is going to do any of that without intense scrutiny from the public and from legacy media, you're dreaming. Shit, even historically low approval...
And if you're in the Democratic party leadership with the ability to directly hold those people accountable, great, but I see zero service to the rest of us to circle the drain on it if change and accountability is the goal. Just primary them, fire them, and move on.
If you think the Democratic party leadership is going to do any of that without intense scrutiny from the public and from legacy media, you're dreaming. Shit, even historically low approval ratings can't get them to budge. Sure, organizing is important, but it can only take you so far. See the 2020 primaries or the current state of the NYC mayoral race, for example.
I hate Jake Tapper as much as anyone else, and I have plenty of thoughts (many of them negative) about the book. I would take the time to go over them, but thankfully Nathan J. Robinson covered most of it already. I encourage you to read it.
All I'm saying is that there is value in covering the story of Biden's decline and the attempts to cover it up. It's important for regular Democrat party voters to be aware of what happened in 2024 and to be angry with the people responsible. That way, the progressive candidates that some of us organize for might actually stand a chance in their primaries. Lord knows they'll need all the ammunition they can get. Also, we're not goldfish. It's possible for people to comprehend multiple narratives at the same time.
This story isn't the be all end all, but if it somehow helps the 50-year-old suburbanites or Clyburn's ride-or-die constituents realize the failure and crookedness of the Democratic party, or realize the "we need ___ because they're the only one who can win" line is bullshit, then I'll take the win where I can get it. Otherwise, we can ignore all that, give Democrats a pass, focus on Trump 24/7, and then you and I can meet up in line to vote for Gavin Newsom in 2028 and we can fantasize about a 2036 progressive nominee together.
Considering Tapper himself was saying to Ezra Klein that people were fooling themselves and that post-debate everyone just recontextualized their experiences, I don't think this actually is...
Considering Tapper himself was saying to Ezra Klein that people were fooling themselves and that post-debate everyone just recontextualized their experiences, I don't think this actually is holding anyone's feet to anyone's fire. He didn't even make it sound like a cover up. Because IMO, this is just a $$ gossip book, not any actual news story to create accountability. Because he chose to avoid the journalistic integrity option. The media is holding no one to account.
And yes I know "we're not goldfish." I'm not asking for attention but for action.
I think the people who can actually make change are us, but it's not by talking about this book.
ETA: and sure it might be the only thing to change some random sub group's mind, ok, big hypothetical but unless those people are in the room with us, I maintain I think this is a waste of time
I'm gonna go out and say that your odd coincidence is simply a coincidence. We have zero reason to doubt that he has known about his cancer longer than his diagnosis Friday. Given that it looks...
I'm gonna go out and say that your odd coincidence is simply a coincidence. We have zero reason to doubt that he has known about his cancer longer than his diagnosis Friday. Given that it looks pretty rough, their timeline of which it is helpful information to keep hidden seems pretty much non existent. I think we know about it now simply because he knows about it now.
My implication was that I don't believe either, hence the "tinfoil hat" part of my comment, but after reading it again it was a little too subtle. The point I was actually trying to get across is...
My implication was that I don't believe either, hence the "tinfoil hat" part of my comment, but after reading it again it was a little too subtle.
The point I was actually trying to get across is that there will always be a lingering air of suspicion once you lose the public trust by intentionally deceiving everyone for your own selfish ambition, even if you're in a situation where no one should doubt you.
Ironically, the same applies to many of the people quoted in the article/book and Jake Tapper himself.
Not much to go off of there. He's of a generation and demographic that doesn't share too much.
Sounds like it's both severe and aggressive (having spread to his bones), but also manageable via hormone treatments? I am not familiar with that combo.
The gist is that certain cancers are responsible to hormones so in the absence of those hormones (typically testosterone or another androgen) the cancer doesn't grow.
Perhaps ironic in our current environment, but hormone blockers are the typical treatment in this case.
It may be that even with that, there's no surviving the cancer, but it might provide him with a longer life than other treatment options with it already being metastisized, and more a comfortable/better quality of life than chemo especially at his age. Possibly letting him die of non-cancer causes later.
/Not a doctor, just a member of the "Fuck Cancer" club
Thanks for educating me.
Just life experience so I may have misunderstood something but I'm more familiar with it being a thing with breast cancer and I've seen older folks with more medical issues choose the chemo route, shortening their lives and leaving them less comfortable rather than otherwise. I also had a friend whose cancer hit her bones and then her brain at a very young age.
Fuck Cancer. Seriously.
My grandfather's prostate cancer was caught very early by random chance, when it was just a tiny spec. They tried to nip it in the bud, as it were, but it still spread to his pelvis — which, as you suggest, ultimately killed him.
He pursued absolutely every treatment that he could get his hands on, starting with accepted medical treatments that slowed it down but did not stop it, and finally switching to alternative medicine out of desperation (one of which, a heavy fruit-based diet, substantially increased the rate of spread and likely took a year or more off his life).
That was over 15 years ago, though, so fingers crossed that there are better treatment options available now.
Waiting 2 more days to hear about a dear relatives final count of their cancer antigen test after six rounds of chemo. If its under 63 they may live another 5 years or so, if its more than that, not likely to make it very long as it means the cancer will likely come back with a vengeance.
They found out about their cancer the day their spouse retired. Definitely f'd over their retirement plans. Crazy.
Carpe diem - seize the day. Who knows if we're here tomorrow?
What a Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Like Biden’s Means for Patients
Some more info on this type of prostate cancer
First of all, cancer sucks. I condemn cancer. And while I am not a Biden fan, I do feel bad for anyone who has to deal with the horrible combo of cancer and cognitive issues. Trust me, I've seen it firsthand.
However, if you can indulge me for a moment as I put on my tinfoil hat, I would like to point out the odd coincidence that this news is dropping two days before Jake Tapper's book on Biden's mental decline is set to release. Here's a brutal excerpt that The New Yorker put out a few days ago. I don't know, it's hard not to view this as an attempt to take some of the incoming heat off of the former president and his inner circle.
Tbh there's zero purpose in talking about Biden's cognitive decline when the current president's cognitive ability is mostly going entirely unremarked on.
He shouldn't have tried to run again and should have transitioned earlier and all but I have such little tolerance for essentially a gossip book after the fact. It's like all the people that worked for Trump, left or got fired and then wrote a tell all about how awful Trump is.
Only speaking up afterwards, and only to sell a book is a far more suspicious motive than anything about a cancer announcement. Old guy old. We get it. Gestures at the Oval Office Instead of Ouroboros-ing the left once again maybe we could keep our eye on the ball.
(Plus the bullshit ableism about wheelchair use that's already started due to this book is absolutely fucking infuriating. )
I 100% disagree with you.
For starters, it's not the "crime," it's the coverup. I don't really give a shit about the current state of Biden's cognitive abilities, I care more about all the people who knew about them and didn't do anything about it as he ran for a second term. That isn't something we should gloss over, especially considering the fact that it is the single biggest reason why Donald Trump is president today. Those people need to be held accountable, the same way former Trump staffers should be held accountable for not doing enough to stand in the way of his bullshit. The inner circle obviously carries most of the blame, but if you read the piece or the other reporting on this, the number of people who had some knowledge of his decline appears to be quite high. Not to mention the fact that polling showed the vast majority of voters thought he was too old to run again back in 2022. Jesus, I feel like Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight.
I couldn't imagine a more perfect illustration of the rot that is at the core of the Democratic party and the broken thinking that has lead to roughly two decades of disaster.
There are only a handful of tools that can fix the avalanche of problems that Donald Trump and the Republican party are creating for this country. Unfortunately, our biggest and best tool is the Democratic Party. I'm no handyman, but I know it's hard to fix shit with broken tools. Our focus, if we ever want to make America great
again, should be on making sure there is a strong and capable opposition party. If you ask me, that's keeping your eye on the ball.(also, I don't know what your talking about regarding wheelchair ableism, but the greatest Democrat of all time used a wheelchair so I won't put up with it either)
If it wasn't a gossip book full of anonymous sources published six months after an election, maybe there's a point. But the accounts are also already being contested.
The best way to hold those people accountable isn't buying (or even talking about) Tapper's book of gossip. It's by being politically active and supporting candidates not beholden to the machine. There's zero accountability from the press going on and on about how bad Biden was and ignoring the current president's active cognitive decline. Tapper is certainly not being held accountable. Reagan's administration wasn't held accountable for his senility. Why would a book change that?
Vote in local elections, canvas for the people primarying the establishment candidate, speak at city council meetings, call your senators and representatives, etc. Accountability lies there, not with people enriching themselves off not saying anything until they wrote a book later. Fixing the Democratic party lies there, not in continuing to parrot the same shit the GOP is saying.
I'm not saying forgive and forget, I'm saying stop talking shit and act. Refocus the narrative. People are being sent to death camps. The government is acting like habeus corpus is a fucking option. If my choice in November had been Biden, I'd have voted for him regardless of any senility, because fuck having Stephen Miller in the white house directing policy. Biden wasn't the candidate and people still didn't show up to vote.
Let's talk about the current President not knowing anything about who he nominated for Surgeon General. And if you're in the Democratic party leadership with the ability to directly hold those people accountable, great, but I see zero service to the rest of us to circle the drain on it if change and accountability is the goal. Just primary them, fire them, and move on.
A researched news article would have been sufficient if there was news. But he wrote a book to make bank and there are no journalistic standards in publishing political tell-alls. The book is only "the ball" if we're labrador retrievers being toyed with.
As for the ableism there was apparently concern about Biden's potential need for a wheelchair and how that would look and there have been ableist comments made about that already ableist discussion. FDR had to deal with the same shit.
If you think the Democratic party leadership is going to do any of that without intense scrutiny from the public and from legacy media, you're dreaming. Shit, even historically low approval ratings can't get them to budge. Sure, organizing is important, but it can only take you so far. See the 2020 primaries or the current state of the NYC mayoral race, for example.
I hate Jake Tapper as much as anyone else, and I have plenty of thoughts (many of them negative) about the book. I would take the time to go over them, but thankfully Nathan J. Robinson covered most of it already. I encourage you to read it.
All I'm saying is that there is value in covering the story of Biden's decline and the attempts to cover it up. It's important for regular Democrat party voters to be aware of what happened in 2024 and to be angry with the people responsible. That way, the progressive candidates that some of us organize for might actually stand a chance in their primaries. Lord knows they'll need all the ammunition they can get. Also, we're not goldfish. It's possible for people to comprehend multiple narratives at the same time.
This story isn't the be all end all, but if it somehow helps the 50-year-old suburbanites or Clyburn's ride-or-die constituents realize the failure and crookedness of the Democratic party, or realize the "we need ___ because they're the only one who can win" line is bullshit, then I'll take the win where I can get it. Otherwise, we can ignore all that, give Democrats a pass, focus on Trump 24/7, and then you and I can meet up in line to vote for Gavin Newsom in 2028 and we can fantasize about a 2036 progressive nominee together.
Considering Tapper himself was saying to Ezra Klein that people were fooling themselves and that post-debate everyone just recontextualized their experiences, I don't think this actually is holding anyone's feet to anyone's fire. He didn't even make it sound like a cover up. Because IMO, this is just a $$ gossip book, not any actual news story to create accountability. Because he chose to avoid the journalistic integrity option. The media is holding no one to account.
And yes I know "we're not goldfish." I'm not asking for attention but for action.
I think the people who can actually make change are us, but it's not by talking about this book.
ETA: and sure it might be the only thing to change some random sub group's mind, ok, big hypothetical but unless those people are in the room with us, I maintain I think this is a waste of time
I'm gonna go out and say that your odd coincidence is simply a coincidence. We have zero reason to doubt that he has known about his cancer longer than his diagnosis Friday. Given that it looks pretty rough, their timeline of which it is helpful information to keep hidden seems pretty much non existent. I think we know about it now simply because he knows about it now.
Are you implying this is falsified? Or that they held out waiting to release the information?
I find it exceptionally easy.
My implication was that I don't believe either, hence the "tinfoil hat" part of my comment, but after reading it again it was a little too subtle.
The point I was actually trying to get across is that there will always be a lingering air of suspicion once you lose the public trust by intentionally deceiving everyone for your own selfish ambition, even if you're in a situation where no one should doubt you.
Ironically, the same applies to many of the people quoted in the article/book and Jake Tapper himself.