• TurnItOff_OnAgain@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If you have to give PoA to someone you shouldn’t be in an elected position. If you can’t be in control over yourself, you shouldn’t have control over the country.

    • master5o1@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      Typically PoA is instated before someone has a mental decline.

      But at 90, that’s probably already begun.

        • treefrog@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          More like obviously but it’s not because of age. My grandad was sharp as a tack up until 96.

          Pneumonia got him.

          • BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            It’s crazy to me the difference in mental acuity between older individuals. Like it’s there in all age brackets, but the older folk spread just seems so much larger and obvious to me.

      • theangryseal@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I am not trying to downplay the situation, as I am completely aware of just how much her health has declined recently.

        That said, I have a 91 year old friend who wakes up at 4:30 every morning and heads to his log yard and gets to work. He doesn’t slack. He literally works like a man half his age (or better). It blows my mind seeing him in action. He runs multiple companies, bosses over 60 people, handles the affairs of his family, and legit is just a powerhouse of a human being.

        It’s crazy to me, sometimes when I talk to him it just smacks me in the face how he was 15 years old in 1947.

        So much has changed in his lifetime. He’s an interesting case if nothing else.

        I should probably talk to him about more personal things and record it.

      • L3s@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think her mental state is a question at this point. She’s obviously not able to make decisions for the country right now.

  • ggBarabajagal@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I agree with others here who point out that merely having a PoA in place is not a reason that Feinstein should resign. As to whether she should resign for other reasons, I tend think she probably should. But then I think about all the reasons that she shouldn’t.

    Feinstein is a high-ranking member of the senatorial judiciary committee. Back in April, she asked to be temporarily replaced in that position, but the Republicans blocked that from happening.

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republicans-block-temporary-replacement-for-sen-feinstein-on-judiciary-committee

    The judiciary committee slot is important, because those are the guys who confirm all the federal judges. After sandbagging Obama’s appointees for eight six years, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed a flurry of judges under Trump.

    To try to catch up now, the currently Democrat-controlled (by the thinnest possible margin) Senate Judiciary Committee wants to confirm as many Biden-appointed judges as it can while it still can. A year-and-a-half from now, who knows who will control what?

    Sure, Feinstein should step down, and I think even she probably knows that, but she also knows that when she does so, the Democrats lose their razor-thin Senate majority, at least until Newsom can appoint a replacement.

    No matter how quickly Feinstein could be replaced, the transition would offer Republicans easy opportunities to further delay nominations and block legislation of the very sort that Feinstein was elected by the people of California to pass. Nominations and legislation we have every reason to believe that she fully comprehends, regardless of any PoAs in place, and even despite her recent display of other age-related lapses in focus.

    Anyway though, maybe her tragic act of hubris in all this was running for another term way back in 2018. If she had resigned back then, instead of next year, we wouldn’t be here now. But now that we’re here, I don’t blame her for recognizing the no-win nature of the situation.

    • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Her and RBG. Sheesh, realize you’re mortal and that there are implications to overstaying your office.

      Maximum age laws for ALL government positions, now. And make it 65, if it’s good enough for us poors, they should have to abide by the same age limit.

    • obscura_max@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Newsome could replace her in a weekend and Senate Republicans’ ability to block her replacement on the committee would be moot. Any excuses for her not resigning fall apart at the slightest bit of interrogation. She and the leaches in her circle just don’t want to give up their power.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    PoA can also be used so you don’t have to be there to buy a car or a house, potentially useful for someone who is frequently away from home for work.

    Or if you are a politically important person and your husband died in 2022, it might be good to have someone designated to determine your health affairs if you become physically incapacitated.

    Not saying she’s currently able to perform the duties of her office, but having a PoA isn’t a reason why she isn’t.

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What kind of Power of Attorney? Are we talking medical POA, financial POA, a general POA? Assuming the headline is correct, the type of POA makes a big difference here. If you have a stock broker managing your transactions you have almost surely agreed to a non-durable power of attorney for them to operate those investments on your behalf.

    Everyone should have a medical power of attorney with someone they trust to make those decisions on their behalf when they are not able. Someone you know would make similar decisions to yourself in those scenarios. Family is often NOT the best to make medical decisions during a crisis or long term illness where you are incapacitated or unable to make decisions on your own.

    https://www.freewill.com/learn/5-types-of-power-of-attorney

  • DaCrazyJamez@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It seems most people don’t understand what power of attorney means. It gives her daughter the ability to make decisions* on her behalf, yes, but doesn’t grant any sort of conservatorship over her.

    It’s an intelligent move, especially when a person gets older, to grant PoA to someone you trust. It means if, for example, you’re in the hospital, that person can still do things like pay your bills from your accounts.

    EDIT: *legal, personal decisions - not senate votes. It doesn’t give the daughter any right or ability to do her job.

  • flipht@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Feinstein’s a terrible senator, which should surprise no one, since she’s not been particularly good at any of her jobs.

    Additionally, her cognitive abilities seem to have declined substantially.

    All of this is completely independent from a power of attorney, which is absolutely normal and should be something all families discuss doing when they have responsible adult children. If you do not do this, it would take a court order to help out a parent who gets admitted to the hospital suddenly but still needs to pay bills, or you’d have to get the person declared incompetent if they are being scammed and you need to step in to fix it.

    Power of attorney sets up the framework for dealing with those issues in a timely manner, but it has to be done while the person is competent and of sound mind, so you have to do it before shit hits the fan.

    Also, for family finance planning, keep in mind that medicaid has means and asset tests that basically mean old people have to spend everything before they can get the government to pay for long term care. And the government can claw back property if it is transferred within a few years of needing that safety net. My mom and her mom worked all this shit out years in advance and it went very smoothly, compared to my father’s paranoid parents who wound up having to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars that they spent their whole lives saving, just to have necessary medical care in their 80s and 90s.

    Plan ahead, folks.