No, It's Not Cognitive Decline

The most recent controversy (or by now, the second-most recent, which I'll get to) over Biden is the allegation that he fell asleep in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Mainstream media fact-checking has countered, correctly I think in this case, that photos and video clips have been edited to focus on several seconds where Biden's head is lowered. Conservative YouTuber Brandon Tatum, also of the not-asleep school, makes the point that, although Biden's eyes are slits in the sequence, close examination suggests that they aren't actually closed.

However, I also agree with the UK Express that calls the sequence "bizarre", asleep or not. Biden's body language often demonstrates incongruous affect, like the even more recent photo of him checking his watch during the transfer of the Kabul service members' remains in Delaware yesterday.

I think the bottom line is that he either doesn't give a flip how it looks -- after all, he's king -- or it's even more or less deliberate. Consider that Prime Minister Bennett is a supplicant in this situation. Israeli media made the point that the visit was to cement relations with the US, and Bennett's remarks emphasized the historic ties blah blah blah. Biden's reaction was to pull the slit-eyed lizard move, just days after shafting another US ally.

The same applies to checking his watch -- searching the web for commentary, I found that this seems to be a fairly common Biden tic in inappropriate situations, including debates. Given how we're getting to know the guy, I think it's a fairly honest indicator of what he's thinking. He's king, and he doesn't give a flip. Deal with it. It's a natural reaction, if we see something like this, to look for the most charitable explanation, so we're inclined to wonder if he's a little off. Afraid not.

Another recent story gives a better idea of how his mind works.

Boris Johnson has been warned that Joe Biden “holds grudges” after members of the British government questioned his mental fitness following “completely mad” press briefings on Afghanistan.

The warning follows a report in The Sunday Times that a British government minister said President Biden “looked gaga” while speaking to the press, with a government aide describing the American as “doolally” and the newspaper noting that “Such thoughts are normally never whispered in Whitehall, let alone briefed.”

“Doolally” is an insult with a strong pedigree in Britain, stemming from the name of a town in India where a sanatorium for soldiers rendered temporarily deranged by fever were sent in the 1800s.

U.S. sources have indicated that the 78-year-old Democrat is unlikely to appreciate the rich history of this description of his mental state, however, telling The Telegraph — which is close to the British government — that he is emphatically “not ‘gaga’” and in fact has “actually picked up his game quite a bit since the [election] campaign.”

“The Brits have their view. But they should be careful. What’s been said is offensive and he will remember it. He actually has a long memory,” the source warned the right-leaning newspaper.

I don't buy the bumbling grandpa bit. I lean much more to the slit-eyed lizard.

"Devout Catholic"? Forget his policies on abortion. How can a guy who goes to mass each week act this way at all?