comeuppance
/kʌmˈʌp(ə)ns/
noun
informal
noun: comeuppance; plural noun: comeuppances; noun: come-uppance; plural noun: come-uppances
- a punishment or fate that someone deserves.
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Your article exists within the context of a broader discussion about Biden’s age that I find completely at odds with the timeline I lived through. The conversation is being driven largely by the release of a high profile book from Tapper and Thompson that reveals some of the inner workings of his inner team, and it is that and the discussion around it the John Stewart clip is addressing. It is that broader discussion I am responding to.
But as I ended that post, I seemingly agree with you about how this cancer diagnosis is being used. There are personality traits of doggedness, belief in himself etc that led to his catastrophic decision to try to run for reelection. Those are now in the news as a central part of the story of how he helped get us where we are today. I feel some segments are now using this cancer diagnosis and the typically trope of people “fighting cancer” as a way to try to reclaim those traits in a positive way and I think it is in incredibly poor taste. Both because you shouldnt need to play a silly game to illicit good will for someone with a cancer diagnosis because it is a fucking shit thing that pretty much everyone is touched by in some way. But also because it seems so tone deaf in terms of what people are mad about him over now.
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Talking to South Florida hispanics about politics is a wild experience.
Them: We must vote Republican because communism
Me: Democrats are not communist though, and Republicans are actually the same sort of authoritarian you fled from. And they fucking HATE you.
Them: Yeah, but communism bad. Regan
Me: You’re 30. You weren’t alive when Regan was in office
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Apparently neither were you, his name was Reagan
(Apologies. Seriously).
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At least I didnt call him Ray Gun
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Fuckwits! 
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Loved the fuckwit that said ‘I don’t want to make this political’ it’s a police issue how do you not make if political?
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Seemingly satire:
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Same. They were told what would happen, so feel no empathy for them when it does happen.
FAFO
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Sad for Joe Biden. Old man, frail, cancer. Death comes to us all, whether we achieve the Presidency or live a more modest and normal life.
I find the fuss around what he did and didn’t do to be a bit distasteful. We all know the score. He went on too long and overestimated what he could do. He’s not the first person to stay too long, whether that is politics, sports, or some other arena we could name.
Part of what got him to the top job is also what kept him there too long. He backed himself. He used his power to stay in situ, until it became very obvious he was past it - and it was too late for Harris when he moved over, as it happened.
His opponent, Trump, is such an awful man on any number of levels, and it is not hard to see Biden wanting to deliver one last knockout blow to his adversary, before handing over the reins to someone younger. I’m sure that’s what was in his mind, but it didn’t work out like that. He got the timing wrong, and a whole slew of factors converged to give us what we have now.
I hope Biden lives out the rest of his days in relative peace and comfort.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/05/20/trump-deporations-ukrainians-haitians/
The article is a good read (also free).
I genuinely don’t understand what they were expecting…
I hope he lives out his years in peace and comfort too. I hope that regarding 99% of people.
But what you wrote there, in that segment, is not mitigating, but in reality a damning indictment of President Biden (and the United States) in any other political climate but the US in the West. Absolutely damning, of him and those around him in his click.
We are talking about the office of the leader of the land here, not a normal job. There are certain responsibilities above and beyond when it is a state leader one is talking about. Or there should be.
At least in my part of the world, this could never ever have happened in the first place (clinging egotistically on to power when you are this old, consolidating power around person and not a party and the entire debate about Geriatricy in the first place ) and few would view thoses factors as mitigating.
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Other people to get fucked. They wanted this, they just expected to be on the team who decided who gets fucked
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Yeah, but who? Who did they think he was going to target?
I think the relatively little psychological research there is suggests that you don’t get to the top echelons of leadership anywhere without a level of ego/self-belief.
But on the question of age, I think that’s pretty much a distraction, it’s more about the physical capabilities. I don’t know much about Norway, but Corbyn for example wasn’t much younger than Biden (7 years I think). Winston Churchill was last elected Prime Minister at the young age of 76, and left office at 80. People are actively rooting for Bernie Sanders who’s even older than Biden.
Or the physical appearance? Maybe he would have been questioned less with a bottle of hair dye.
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Undoubtedly that would be the case, but I’m arguing about the actual fitness for office rather than the perception thereof.
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They feel betrayed.
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Yes, that is a sociopolitical problem as well as a more technical one, isn’t it ? That you have to be truly old to be seemingly electable ? To even run at 80 is a truly very serious democratic problem, in my view.
As for Norway, the oldest man ever prime minister was Otto Blehr in 1923. When his cabinet fell, he was 76 years old, past (naturally) his prime.
But crucially, he was among those who initiated Parliamentarism in Norway in the first place and was wise (his brain was sharp at 76) and therefore had more credic than normal PMs would have. He was one of the champions of our nation and basically helped defeat the influence of King Oscar II, helping to give us real indepence.
In 1905, prince Carl of Denmark comes to Norway and is elected king by parliament. These days are monumental, and crucially, it’s a different era.