What My Mom’s Dementia Continues to Tell Me

[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne] Like my first post discussing my mom’s dementia, this post isn’t really about my mom. My siblings and I are taking turns caring for her in my parents’ home because she’s not a candidate for assisted living or memory care. Living with her has been eye opening; Mom has been teaching me a LOT this last two months whether she realizes it or not. I’ve already written about the ways in which her form of dementia manifests itself, from increasingly poor memory to sundowning. I’ve mentioned her Parkinsonism. These symptoms continue to get worse though they’re difficult to measure. How does one unobtrusively measure a family member’s ability to remember specific events without interfering with the process of memory? We could use standard tests but she’s not degraded to a point where she wouldn’t recognize testing in progress, and standardization itself ensures she’d see a test repeated. She can still acquire new memories though it takes repeated exposure; perhaps that’s a measure in itself. The one benchmark I track in a daily diary is her overt anxiety. It’s not hard to miss thanks to her broken social filter. One day she picked up the phone reflexively before I could reach it myself to screen and answer the call. She was furious for hours afterward because it was a spam call, likely from a scam outfit in an overseas pig butchering shop based on the details she was able to give me. At one point she was hyperventilating; I had to coach her through some relaxation exercises to calm her. Thank goodness I had enough experience to get her through this spell; I worried she’d have a stroke. But one entirely new symptom manifested itself during my first rotation for which I was wholly unprepared in spite of briefing by my siblings. My mom had hallucinations while expressing a delusion. She was absolutely certain she saw my sibling outside though my sibling had left the day before. Mom had been with me when we dropped my sibling off; it’s not as if my mom had not seen my sibling’s departure. My mom’s vision is also relatively good. She’s only needed reading glasses to get by for decades. Yet she swore she saw my sibling outside when what I think she mistook for my sibling was a lawn chair about 20 feet away. Her brain’s ability to process what her eyes saw was deeply affected at that moment. It reinforced her delusion that my sibling was still present in the house. I’ve been coached not to argue with my mom because it just increases her anxiety. I’m supposed neutrally accept whatever she says provided it does no harm to herself or others. In this case I just went with it; Mom only wanted to know what my sibling was doing. She asked several times over the course of an afternoon and I told her I didn’t know, because at that moment I didn’t. When Mom asked to speak to me in private about some things she wanted to give me but didn’t want my sibling to know, I just listened. Harmless, all of it, though it was hours before my mom let go of the delusion my sibling was still present in the house. I mentioned several times in an off-the-cuff fashion that my sibling had gone home, which may have helped her reorient her reality. Mom’s had other persistent delusions – she thinks she can move out and get an apartment on her own when she’s sundowning and aggravated with the family, for example, though she’s known she can’t drive these last two years – but these irrational beliefs are nothing like the combined hallucination-and-delusion event of several weeks ago. Thank goodness. The first experience was terrifying enough — like an “I see dead people” experience — not knowing how long and how deep the delusion was and what other hallucinations she might have at the time. But as I said, this post isn’t about my mom. It’s about this ongoing learning experience living with a person who has dementia. We are all living with at least one, and it’s this shared experience I want you to consider. I want you to think about the possibility the current president of the United States may have delusions. I want you to think about the possibility he also experiences occasional hallucinations. I want you to think about the possibility that others around him are manipulating him by using those delusions and hallucinations to serve their own agendas. Worse yet, that the persons around him including his cabinet members have also acquired their own problematic thinking because they are enabling him and not preventing him from acting in a way that may harm others. This has been another eye opener: caretakers who spend a lot of time living with dementia patients can themselves begin to have skewed thinking. My sibling who has been living with my parents for most of the last two years issues diktats about my mom’s care that border on obsession. Absolutely no change is permitted to anything in the house, for example. They have become so leery of Mom’s bouts of anxiety that they are internalizing what may have triggered my mom’s past spells of anxious behavior. But the rotations of siblings introduces change itself, because each sibling has different needs. This doesn’t seem to affect my mom as much as the change in caretakers does, if that makes sense. I eat more fruits, cook different foods, do some art work – none of this appears to bother my mom. Yet my sibling is adamant no change must occur in the house. Mom didn’t notice I cleaned and sorted the buffet in the dining room weeks ago, moving around glassware and pitchers in the process, even though she walks by the buffet at least four to six times a day. She hasn’t noticed I appropriated part of the buffet to store tea, or put a bowl of fruit on top. Yet my sibling is strident when they say no change must occur. I thought of this when the Florsheim shoe incident occurred, and all the mad orange king’s men wore Florsheim oxfords to appease their liege, going so far as to look like they’re wearing clown shoes in Marco Rubio’s case. Were they avoiding arguing with Trump, just as I have been coached not to argue with my mom? Were they going along to get along, or behaving cravenly toward the man who allows them free rein to indulge in their own agendas, or their own grift? Or have they internalized Trump’s delusional thinking – nothing must disturb his nibs, they must act as if he is right that Florsheims are the end-all, be-all of men’s footwear no matter one’s personal needs or preferences. If male cabinet members and staffers were simply indulging a dementia patient in harmless behaviors it’d be one thing. But these same men have yielded to Trump’s irrational demands which hurt Americans, our allies, and the rest of the globe. If they aren’t merely indulging him they are exercising their own personal malignant agenda using the authority of a dementia patient to do so. None of this is ethical. None of it fulfills their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. None of it protects the nation. Too many Americans have died already for their inability or refusal to restrain the president. They won’t even push back about ill-fitting Florsheim shoes they put on their own feet (you can imagine what that tells other hostile entities about the US). Even more fellow humans have been abused, disabled, or died for the same lack of restraint on their part, not just the dementia-patient-in-chief. The entire global economy is on a knife’s edge now because of their failures, whether it’s their excessive indulgence without push back, or their internalization of Trump’s thinking, or their own personal agendas. Compounding the injury is the GOP congressional caucus. Nearly all of it refuses to check the presidency by exerting their role as a co-equal branch of government, as proven by its War Powers vote. They are treating Trump’s undeclared, unauthorized, delusional war on Iran as if it were just a kind accommodation granted to a dementia-addled elder. Refusing to check his abuse of power is elder abuse because it doesn’t merely humor his delusions but reinforces them by validating them as acceptable behavior. Let me add here that persons suffering from some forms of dementia lose the ability to plan and execute to that plan. They can’t form strategy let alone execute tactics with a degree of sustained, stable follow through (ex. a certain ballroom comes to mind). Trump did not do any planning for the war in Iran, and he’s ignored any past contingency planning prepared for previous administrations. He’s failed to demand it of Pete Hegseth as well. The GOP is capable of demanding a concrete plan from Trump and Hegseth they can authorize and fund, but they have refused to do so. The GOP congressional caucus is willing to allow Trump and his equally mad men to kill Americans, commit war crimes with impunity, jeopardize the safety and security of our military and the nation because they are also indulging a dementia patient if not internalizing his thinking, or exercising their own toxic agendas. Some of those toxic agendas may be fulfilled with additional defense funding which will have no plan to which they and Trump can be held accountable to the public. Or the GOP caucus is just plain chickenshit and not competent to hold public office. Some of them may actually be suffering from dementia themselves, further exacerbating the situation. Sen. Chuck Grassley is 92 years old, for pity’s sake (he’ll be 95 when his term ends). Surely age has affected his acuity, and he’s just one of the GOP caucus. This situation is a gross failure on the part of an entire political party. The GOP is merely a void placeholder for a responsible, effective political organization, unless that organization’s goal is to sow massive upheaval and catastrophic damage and death. For this reason I reiterate what I wrote in my previous post about my experience dealing with dementia: This can’t continue. This must be stopped before it gets worse, and it will get worse like my mother’s dementia. We can’t rely on his family to intervene – they are venally manipulating him and generally useless when it comes to care for his person. Congress must protect the country by restraining the executive branch. It – and by it I mean specifically the GOP congressional caucus – has abandoned its role as the check on executive overreach. This, too, can’t continue. If GOP members of Congress expect their party to survive the next three years, they need to put on their big people pants and collaborate on how to limit the power of a mafioso with dementia. It’s disgusting the GOP has simply folded under Trump’s weight like a broken lawnchair, abdicating their role in effective governance. We know the GOP can step up; it once did when it checked Richard Nixon. But if they don’t fulfill their oaths of office to protect and defend the Constitution instead of protecting their own butts, the American public will look to other role models for guidance with regard to restraining an out-of-control president. Enough other countries have dealt effectively with leaders who posed far less of a threat to their nation and the world – we can learn from them, just as my family is learning how to deal with my mom. Just as my mother’s dementia has gotten worse since I first wrote about it in January, so too the Trump administration has also gotten worse. The scale of the damage being wreaked is exponentially larger than it was even a couple months ago. We the people are going to have to do more to stop this unfolding disaster. We can’t sit on our hands and simply complain. We are the persons we have been waiting for. Each of us must find a way to get involved in supporting candidates at local, state, and federal level, ones who will fight for the public against this madness. Call your members of Congress regardless of their party affiliation and demand they halt this unauthorized military action in Iran, especially if there is no plan offered by Trump and Pete Hegseth. 2500 Marines have been ordered to the Middle East and then likely Iran so time is of the essence to stop something worse than a “forlorn hope” exercise with no planned backup to follow. Exercise your rights, and if you choose to exercise your First Amendment right to protest, do so nonviolently and safely, and then ensure other Americans see that they are not alone in their frustrations. Get around the fascist owned media and find a way to publicize resistance. We the people must mobilize in numbers large enough to make it clear to the lucid members in Congress that the Trump administration’s policies and actions are bat shit irrational — delusional — and unacceptable and Congress must put the brakes on Trump. My mother in mid 20teens imagined my sister’s new dog had been trained by the CIA in Vietnam to be a guard dog . If course this wasn’t possible but she stood by this until she died years later. Took us a while to realize the issue. We thought she was kidding at first. Now if Trump imagines that a nuclear country like China, Russia or North Korea is about to launch a missile…… Imagine someone permitted access to Trump telling him that Iran still had nuclear capabilities creating an imminent threat even after last year’s bombing… -___- A wonderful post! I was at my neurologist and he let slip that about 60% of his patients have dementia. (Tacoma area) At 73 he scared the heck out of me. Might come with the territory. Sixty percent of the patients of an MSW might be neurotic, too. Owing to self-identifying as needing mental health therapy does not make the sample valid for the population overall. You are most probably right, Earl. At 73, it ‘comes with the territory’. (Ah, it is as suspected. Press “Reply” and the thread moves about a half-inch down. Then go down to the bottom of the column, and type in your reply, and it ends up in the right place? One a’ them ironic columns, no doubt.) Thanks Rayne for sharing your experience with your mom. My family is going through something similar. My sister and I have been supporting my mom daily to keep her living independently for about 8 years or so and watching the slow advance of her dementia. A recent health crisis has accelerated her mental decline dramatically to the point that she needs constant care now. I had a sense that caring for a loved one with dementia would suck but was surprised at how much and how many flavors of suck this situation would become. Fortunately at a certain point recently she let go of her anger and misery . She is very childlike now but also compliant and happier and I’ve been able to project a lot of love and comfort towards her in these final days and this is a huge relief for me. As for Trump , yes he obviously has a form of dementia but coupled with a malignant personality disorder. He still is somewhat high functioning at this point which makes him very dangerous. I think that folks are so obsessed with his health status in the hope that a crisis will put a stop to his agenda. I also think that his handlers (enabler’s) are going warp speed to reshape America knowing that they are on the clock. I hope that congress grows a spine but I’m not holding my breath. I’m hoping that his greed takes over and he realizes that Bibi is fucking him while the other Gulf states want to make him and his family richer than god and that they can pressure him to hit the brakes. With the Saudis in the mix I’m not holding my breath for that either. I’m praying for … well everybody I guess. If your mom’s dementia started with symptoms of Parkinson’s, then it may be Lewy Body Dementia. My sister had that: from the first noticeable (to others) dementia behavior to the death of her remaining physical body at age 67 was two and a half years, the last 6 months in skilled nursing. There are ebooks and at least one Facebook group re LBD. My deepest sympathy to you and your siblings. Thanks. I’m sorry for your loss; 67 is so young from my perspective in my mid-60s. Mom still doesn’t have a firm diagnosis even two-plus years after her doctors said she had some form of dementia. She may have had some mild response to memantine but it’s no longer effective. The Parkinsonism seems to have emerged concurrently with her other symptoms so it’s hard to say if it’s LBD. I think we’re also running into ageism — because she’s nearly 86, her healthcare providers aren’t exactly busting hump to do more for her. It’d be nice if they thought about quality of life, though, and they don’t uniformly seem to care about it. If they did, they’d be treating her anxiety instead of shrugging it off. All the while I wonder how they’re treating Trump, who also may have congestive heart failure; CHF also frequently affects cognitive skills. As someone who’s mother & mother-in-law had dementia, I hope those who have not experienced this read your article. Thanks and my thoughts go with you on your journey. In a strange way I have found both of your posts consoling. It’s like getting some test results back and breathing a sigh of relief, not because there is no problem, but because now we know what the problem is, we have a diagnosis. What scares me more is that while it’s obvious that Trump is seriously impaired, the alternate diagnosis (malignant narcissism) is the one which the MSM is using while still never saying it out loud. It’s as if THAT diagnosis allows reporters not to name dementia, not to think about it. So Trump’s inabilities do indeed pop up in reporting, but there’s still almost no editorial comment on the lines of – we have a diagnosis, so what’s the plan going forward? We still have another 36 months of this to go through, and I expect that the enablers will try to steal the mid-terms as a trial run for stealing the next general. Ugh. The media isn’t going to discuss comorbidities until their fascist owners find value in doing so. It’s going to have to hurt the oligarchs directly first. Then they’ll finally discuss Trump’s personality disorder AND his dementia AND his congestive heart failure (or whatever alternate diagnosis explains his cankles). My mother will probably die before what’s left of the bloody GOP gets a spine and removes sharp objects from Trump’s reach. That will piss me off to no end because my mom has been a GOP voter and she can’t stand Trump; she shouldn’t exit before that criminal-in-chief leaves the White House. Likewise, my brother has Stage 4 cancer but is determined to see Trump dead before him. I hope that your brother will outlive the Trump administration as well as the removal of RFK Jr. from HHS. I had similar thoughts. There’s no neat division between behaviors that can be clearly assigned to traits of malignant narcissism and traits of ongoing dementia. Or how the 2 conditions can interact and exacerbate each other. I recently saw a 2011 clip of pre-politician Trump expounding his political views. He was energetic, sharp, concise and to the point. Completely narcissistic in views also, that was obvious. Now that’s mixed in with delusions and the “weave”, which seem to be the dementia component in this tragic equation. What to do about either medical condition? Well, the Supreme Court had their chance in preventing him running for president in 2024 but they completely blew that, evidently considering him to be a useful idiot of some sort. Bandy Lee was leading the charge to promote public awareness of his malignant narcissism and how that might be dealt with since 2016, but her efforts were stymied by academic institutions (Yale psychiatry dept) protecting their own institutionality and being afraid to take a risk and side with her “duty to warn” activism on behalf of concerned medical professionals of which there are many. Seems like as long as Trump can be trotted out in public and still be able to blather semi-coherently for 1-2 hours, his handlers will continue to exploit these twin medical conditions. Beyond sad, mostly for us citizens. I don’t buy that Trump has dementia. I think he’s just surrounded himself with people who tell him how great he is. He loves having the power to control the narrative. He doesn’t have to acknowledge reality if doing so isn’t in HIS interest. Hence his constant lies and misdirection. Since he always puts his own needs and wants first he dismisses anyone who tells him painful facts. A cult leader. Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Foley. /s Second opinion called for. Trump can be those things and still have dementia. I’d need irrefutable proof that his decisions and actions (lies, crimes, nastiness, etc.) are due to anything other than his own sadistic cruel nature. If there is dementia involved it certainly won’t change my opinion of what should be done about him. What you need and what you get are commonly two different things. Especially when you assume the accuracy of your own assessment of Trump’s personality, but refuse to consider the accuracy of alternate assessments, for which you have the same “irrefutable proof.” Hope this helps. Bless you and your family for your love and compassion that is seeing your through this. No one should have to experience this on a personal level, yet many do so with grace. We definitely shouldn’t be subject to being unable to intervene when it is happening on a national stage that affects our daily lives. I remain convinced not a single soul cares for Trump or they’d step in. Happening on an international stage even. And frankly, I don’t see why anyone would care about or for him, since he’s never cared about anyone who finds themselves in a similar position. Hell, he’s never cared about anyone or anything besides enriching himself at the expense of others, so I shed no tears over his personal medical struggles. It would just be nice if someone who had some loyalty to their country and/or the fate of humanity in general stepped in and ended this goat rodeo before more people get killed for no good reason. The world shouldn’t be saddled with the consequences of his (many) psychological issues. Nor the petty hatreds of his followers that he’s quite happily exhorted as a way to gain and consolidate power. Sean I’ve been holding a similar POV regarding Trump’s dementia until I saw a 2011 clip of him waxing his narcissistic political skis that I mentioned in a post above. The contrast between his cognitive abilities then and now is actually quite startling – though the narcissism is a through-line in all his behavior. I went through 4 years of dementia with my mother at the end of her life, and like Rayne’s descriptions of her mother’s behaviors, the dementia was stone cold obvious. Obvious memory lapses, obvious delusions and clearly in need of other people’s help. Trump still seems largely functional, whether due to A-1 handlers who are effective at hiding his worst moments from the public, or whether his cognitive slide is compensated by a lifetime of con-man behavior. Maybe he gets pumped-up with drugs like Adderall (as widely suspected) for his longer outings, I dunno. But there’s definite cognitive decline happening I now believe. [Moderator’s note: I found a few attempts to publish a comment in the bin; I suspect the trigger was the brand name drug you mentioned herein. Let me know by reply if you don’t want this published. /~Rayne] Rayne – OK to publish. Was intended as a reply to Matt Foley’s post about not believing Trump has dementia. You can delete the other post below by me wondering about why post seemingly disappeared without even being notified it was “in moderation” Rayne – technical issue – erase after reading this: I just successfully replied to John Paul Jones’ comment. Then I wrote a reply to Matt Foley but when clicking the Submit Comment button, it went dead. Usually it will show up for the 5-minute edit period OR inform me that it’s in the moderation queue. I then tried to re-submit 3 more times with the same results – dead button. I suspect it’s still lurking in blog back-end machinery somewhere. And obviously this post worked. I’m in the 5-minute Edit period as I type this. I think you and your siblings are Saints and your mother is extremely lucky to have such wise and loving children. Your insight into the most likely current situation in the White House should be a NYT editorial. This needs to be written for wider public consumption. Things are going to take a very interesting turn in the Executive wing now, Susie Wiles has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Rayne and others Many of us have walked in your shoes. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. My Mom had suspected Lewy Body that included periodic hallucinations for the last year. She died in January at 92, and we had a very trying and tiring first few months as she had to transition to full time memory care situation. A friend recommended reading up on “ambiguous loss” for caregivers, which was very helpful, as the clinicians are applying this to dementia. Also the book “The 36 hour Day”, by Dr Nancy Mace (not the crazy one from SC!), was a very helpful resource across the span on the types of dementia and impacts on patients and caregivers. Just offering this up as well as strength and patience to see the good things that are still there. [Welcome back to emptywheel. THIRD REQUEST: Please use the SAME USERNAME and email address each time you comment so that community members get to know you. You attempted to publish this comment as “Wally” triggering auto-moderation; it has been edited to reflect the username and date/time of your first known comment. Please check your browser’s cache and autofill; future comments may not publish if username does not match. /~Rayne] I’m very sorry for your loss, Wally. You’ve been through a lot recently; I hope you’re doing a lot of self care to recover. Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll look into them for myself and my siblings. My worry now is that Trump will be deemed incompetent and will never be held accountable for his crimes. But I do wonder what will become of those surrounding him and manipulating him to their own ends. How shall we deal with them? “Elder abuse” comes to mind. If they knew – and they should be aware – and did nothing, then elder abuse applies. I agree that Trump and his fucking cabinet are demented. But must the rest of us enter into it so willingly? When is a reporter going to ask what that stuff all over his face is. Trump is going to impose a draft? I know, he’ll use ICE to round up the conscripts. Oy fucking gevalt! Or will immigrants suddenly become our most valuable citizens, if they fight in Trump’s army. Rayne, You are the best daughter in the world. I was an expert Hospice nurse case manager and Hospice admissions nurse for 12 years and had lots of hospice patients with Dementia and Parkinson’s comorbidities. I think based on Trump’s own writing on his platform since Feb 28 2026, that you are correct that his dementia delusions are sustained by his sycophants. For example he has posted demands that the EU leaders join his Iranian war Operation Epstein Fury and open the SOH magically by sailing their war ships into the SOH. That isn’t how one goes about opening a narrow shipping channel after illegally and belligerently bombing a country’s supreme leader. Trump’s dementia care takers won’t tell him that not one EU leader has responded saying “yes i will sail my nation’s war ships into SOH to reopen it as you requested.” War crimes are mounting as the dementia patient is coddled. We are in this together. No Kings. Stop the War. Peace. Thanks, but I am definitely not the best daughter in the world. LOL Far, far from it. I’m a much better tiger mother. Let me know what you think about the possibility delusions could be seeded by others within a dementia patient’s circle. I think Trump’s lousy education precludes him generating certain ideas on his own, but his cognitive decline combined with a tendency toward grandiosity and delusion could make it easy to plant ideas he couldn’t otherwise come up on his own. [Rayne, I’m submitting a link but I don’t know the rules for doing so, so please delete if it’s a problem.] Rayne, my heart goes out to you and your family. I agree with others that your family is handling this situation with love and grace. Regarding your mom’s anxiety, have any of her doctors considered Zoloft? It’s safe for the elderly and can work wonders for anxiety and depression. Regarding Trump, yes, thank you for speaking about trump’s worsening dementia. Here is a 30 minute YouTube video by Dr John Gartner explaining and presenting the evidence. https://youtu.be/9OtO-cypKmY So far Mom’s docs have preferred to avoid any meds for anxiety and/or depression. My sibling has handled the visits with healthcare professionals for the last two years, and the concern has been in part about drug interactions. I’m skeptical but I’m not the sibling tasked with this portion of her care; I’ll ask again about Zoloft specifically. Thanks for the suggestion and the video. So using the parallels of kids dealing with a parent in decline, let’s play out what the group dynamics of TrumpWorld look like, assuming Trump has declining mental capacity . . . Inside the White House, you have three big family figures: Suzie Wiles, the Enabler-in-Chief. “Whatever you want, sir, whatever you want;” Stephen Miller, the one who steps in to really run things, but by his own twisted rightwing lights and not necessarily dad’s; and JD Vance, the legal heir-in-waiting for three more years, after which he becomes one of several candidates to succeed Trump. Wiles is the kid who placates dad, Miller is the kid who says “I’ll take care of it” while keeping as much actual decision-making out of dad’s hands, and Vance is the kid who would love to take over the company now, before having to go through a big succession battle three years down the road. Meanwhile, there are the rest of the kids, elsewhere in the area but not part of the day-to-day stuff at Dad’s house. Marco Rubio is the eldest of the kids and deals with the neighbors, Bessent handles the money for dad, Bondi is dad’s muscle to lean on folks, etc, etc, etc. Members of this cabinet of the kids may drop into regular contact with dad for a week or two, then go back to their old spots while someone else has a turn. Then there are the actual family members with actual legal power: Melania, Ivanka/Jared, Don Jr, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron. They come and go in dad’s life, and personal financial grifting seems to be the name of their game. If things get too bad with dad, Rubio has the power (25th Amendment) to gather the cabinet kids, declare an emergency, and force dad out and into some kind of care facility, away from all the day to day problems he is increasingly incapable of handling. Vance would love this, as it would pave his way into a potential 7 or 10 year stint in the White House. Rubio would hate this, for the very same reason, as *he* wants to take over for dad in 3 years himself. Miller, likewise, would hate this, as a competent president would make it harder for Miller to do things in the president’s name. Here’s the thing . . . It would take a massive event – not necessarily a public event — so frightening to Rubio et al. that they’d bite the bullet, have dad put in a home, and hand things over to JD. However, they all know about dad’s legendary temper, and his penchant for pushing people out whom he sees as disloyal to him personally. Thus, for the kids to decide to gather to hold a vote about putting dad in a home, they’d have to keep dad from finding out that they’re even talking about it. All it would take would be one kid looking to curry favor with dad who rats them all out, dad would fire them all, and the whole thing would blow up. Just one. As a result, even getting the kids to have an honest discussion about dad’s condition, let alone what to do about it, would be damn near impossible — again, barring a massive event that could not be ignored. So long as Wiles keeps dad placated with her “anything you want, sir” subservience and Miller keeps the rest of things moving (or not, if that’s the desired outcome), there will be no putting dad in a home under the 25th amendment. Re: Peterr’s post, Susie Wiles was just diagnosed with breast cancer but is going to remain in the White House for Trump support during treatment. And here I thought stress was bad for such circumstances. Trump hates illness and sick people. He sees it as a weakness. I think that Susie has just lost a lot of power. Did you see the video clips of Trump speaking to the press today, sitting at a table ? Susie was sitting next to him and she looked like her eyes were going to pop out of her head. I will not be surprised if he forces her to step down “for her health” so he can put someone else in her place. The sycophants around him will be circling like a pack of hyenas ready to tear her to shreds to get that position. He was running his mouth about Cuba, claiming that it isn’t in the hurricane zone (news to everyone in Cuba!) and that he wants it. He’s thinking resorts and golf courses, and not about anything real. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mh7hgkanws2j I wonder how Susie feels about RFK Jr’s cut to Cancer research? It’s apparently stage one, which is the least bad and easiest to treat. May not require much to fix, but I don’t know – mine was farther along. If they have to go with chemo, she’s not going to enjoy it. (At her age, she can get Medicare to pay for a lot of it. I doubt that she’ll get treated at a clinic with a lot of lower-income people, though.) “(At her age, she can get Medicare to pay for a lot of it…” Perish the thought! Enablers inside the WH: Susie Wiles in a healthcare crisis of her own now, a breast cancer diagnosis. Does this mean one less steadying pair of hands off the clown car wheel? All of which may explain this weirdness: WTAF?! Who in their right mind would *live* in the White House while getting treated for cancer? Is she so worried she’ll lose control of her patient that she’s going to be there on site almost 7/24? Are things already worse than the scenario you’ve laid out and Wiles is covering it up as hard as she can? *shudder* I think it’s the other way around – not Wiles trying to hang on, but Trump trying to keep her. After all Trump’s hassles and fights with the various Chiefs of Staff in Trump 1, he finally has someone who views their job as “do whatever Trump tells you to do, and don’t argue with him about it.” The thought that he might have to find a new Chief of Staff likely shook him deeply. Especially if she walked in, told him about her diagnosis, and said she needed to take a leave of absence at the least but likely would need to resign. Trump’s response would have been along the lines of “What can I do to get you to stay? I could put you up in the Lincoln bedroom, and so your commute would disappear. You can eat from the WH mess, and the WH docs would be on call for you like the are for me. Please please please don’t resign on me!” I agree with you, Peterr. Trump definitely does not want Wiles to be inaccessible, especially since Karoline Leavitt will be leaving soon. Thus the enticement of WH accommodations. And now Susie can attempt to have the last word, which she would find appealing. I don’t know if I agree. First because the man never appears to be able to bond with a woman who might have power over him, second because he’s not very accepting of others’ human frailties, and third because his narcissism would expect her to want to be there no matter what. If you are right, she’s the linch pin, his soft underbelly. Re: Savage Librarian @ 8:30 especially since Karoline Leavitt will be leaving soon To be replaced by Scott Jennings, Trump’s current mouthpiece on CNN (and unfortunately who also writes columns in the obeyed-in-advance LA. Times). As Whiskey Pete said out loud in a fit of juvenile honesty: “Can’t wait for David Ellison to remake CNN” !!! Would Scott Jennings be “more liberal” or “as compliant” as Karoline? That should become a Polymarket bet. Also, is it “Whiskey Pete” or “Whisky Pete”? The latter might be indirectly insulting Canadians. The former insults the Irish, the latter insults Scots. replying to Rayne at 8:31pm It’s precisely *because* Wiles apparently never uses her position to challenge him that Trump has bonded to her. Honestly, if Trump bonds with a woman, that’s the kind of woman he would want. “Just do what I say, and even do what I want before I have to say it – and then make sure everyone else does what I say.” When Wiles’ interview was published, former WH Chiefs of Staff lost their collective shit over the way she described her job. And apparently neither Trump nor Wiles is able or willing to think through the national security implications of both of them living in the WH. Ironic, especially after what they did in Iran. The same holds true if multiple cabinet members and staff are living in the same military quarters. Peterr, While Trump always credits his successes to himself, on some level (maybe because Michael Wolff wrote an entire book, Landslide, with this thesis) he recognizes that without Wiles, he might very well have lost in 2024. The campaign was a mess until she righted the ship. Her methods aren’t always pretty, but she got this job done. The majority of people around Trump the most are very proactive Christian Dominionist and/or Nationalists. Your post here and the news of the new transgender laws added to the SAVE America Act go hand in hand. It’s clear who’s manipulating the demented President. A federal appeals court said West Virginia’s policy denying Medicaid coverage to people seeking surgical treatment for gender dysphoria is *not discriminatory* bc it bans trans-specific healthcare for cis & trans people alike https://ballsandstrikes.org/law-politics/anderson-v-crouch-anti-trans-jurisprudence-skrmetti/ 4th Circuit Court. Kind of missing the fcking point of care for trans people… I watched a bit of Trump’s informal Q and A with reporters on Air Force 1 a few days ago. Steve Witkoff was in the background and it looked like he was suppressing laughs at Trump’s babbling about Iran. And there is Lindsey Graham talking about how we will be making a billion dollars a day from Iran. It is possible that they are all demented and delusional. PS My mother had dementia and after realizing that I couldn’t convince her that her hallucinations weren’t real, I just went along for the proverbial ride. For the most part there was no harm in her thinking she had seen long dead friends. “…hallucinations while expressing a delusion…” That’s one explanation for this clip posted by Aaron Rupar to BlueSky: https: //bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mh6uuijene2y Not only are we in big trouble for neglecting to remove an incompetent president; the rest of the world is in turmoil due to our negligence. It’s as if we’ve permitted a vengeful delusional man the freedom to roam the streets with an 8 inch knife. The feckless cabinet will never 25th the guy; our best hope is to impeach and remove, longshot though it may seem to be. Thank you for this post. It helped me be more patient with my mother in my phone conversation with her today. Regarding Trump, I have thought he has been used by those around him for quite a while, just based on knowing he usually follows the ideas of the last person whispering in his ear. I don’t think Susie Wiles cancer will change any dynamics. I will never understand the GOP willingness to not stand up and oppose the Abominable Bill let alone the war on Iran. We’re all forced to live with Trmp’s condition(s) whatever they may be. Certainly, he’s not in as good shape, physically or mentally, as he was during his first term. I have said for years that Trmp gives people permission to be their own worst selves. It’s a big part of what makes him “attractive.” Today, I’m thinking that his years of predations have made his followers devolve to the point where they are salivating to see him shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, “just to watch them die.” I knew the husband of a brilliant legal scholar who had dementia which made her continually lash out at him. My younger cousin entered a care facility for her dementia in June and her personality had changed from bitterness to friendliness and joy. We are down the rabbit hole where I suspect lashing out is going to win out over friendliness and joy. Remember to breathe. No more teachable moments. No new facts accepted. Sense inputs scrambled by our Darwinian virtual reality processing now more faulty than useful for survival. Tape looping triggered by any reminders of the tape. Not just the GOP and GOP voters. The rat GOP is cornered. They have to game the midterms. OT There’s always a shortage of truck drivers, and now “Some 200,000 immigrant truck drivers will begin to lose their commercial driver’s licenses as they expire under a new Trump administration rule that takes effect Monday.” So immigrants aren’t on farms, slaughter houses and trucks. How is food going to get to people? https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-cancellation-licenses-immigrant-truckers-102214508.html #tu Aaron Rupar, this afternoon: Trump’s full rant on Cuba: “Cuba, in its own way, tourism and everything else, it’s a beautiful island, great weather. They’re not in a hurricane zone, which is nice for a change, you know? They won’t be asking us for money for hurricanes every week. I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba.” https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mh7hgkanws2j That’s dementia: he has no fcking clue. (Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma…) AND HE LIVES IN SOUTH FLORIDA. There was a Trump-branded golf course in Puerto Rico until it failed in 2015. *face palm* Dementia. He’s scrambled facts at the same time he’s trying to appear wholly normal. I’ve seen my mom do this same thing numerous times, and the scrambling gets worse as time goes on, and the flailing to fake normalcy looks more desperate. At first, Trump and his sycophants reminded me of a crowd of relatives competing for a better slice of a massive inheritance. Yep, an inheritance of disbarment, indictment, conviction, punishment and ostracism. A shared insanity. The reference to Chuck Grassley, re-elected (again) in his 90s in Iowa, made me think of Bandy X. Lee’s discussion of the shared mental illness she diagnosed during Trump One. She called it “folie a millions,” using the term folie a deux (a delusion shared by two people) as a jumping off point. The voters who put these sundowning dinosaurs in office are not mere spectators. They too participate in the madness and delusion. Who in Iowa thinks Grassley, whose name is a figurehead now for a Senate seat run by his staff, is capable of responding to any real crisis? Writ larger, the voters who put a braying con man back in the presidency share some of the culpability; like the GOP congress, they too expected something in it for themselves, even if it was as petty as owning the libs. As far as madness and delusion goes, Grassley is President pro tempore of the Senate and therefore is third in line in Presidential succession after Vance and Johnson. Let that sink in. Madness and delusion goes much further as the current top seven in the line of succession are Vance, Johnson, Grassley, Rubio, Bessent, Hegseth, and Bondi. I would say let that sink in also but, for me, letting it sink in would be a form of accepting R.D Laing’s theory of mental illness. Laing was a psychiatrist who believed instances of pyschotic episodes, especially schizophrenia, were self-healing steps in dealing with an insane world rather than symptoms of a disease that demanded/deserved other treatment. I tend to think of psychotic episodes, like the Jan 6 riots and the Iran War and tariffs as a form of economic warfare as reinforcing conditioning episodes of a mental illness disease. In that regard, I’ve often thought Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch used Laing’s concept, treating psychotic episodes as a self-healing step, as a prevailing concept of Fox News. Thank you for the post. For people who have not dealt with people who have dementia it will be valuable information and help them understand what will be happening. Our Mother developed Body Lewy Sydrome but no one could figure out what was happening for years. Finally a diagnosis. She remained at home until 10 days prior to her death. She had also developed Parkinsons. She was admitted to hospital because she refused to eat or drink. Once in hospital she refused to have I.V. lines. It was not until she was in hospital did she develop hulicinations, she was back in her early teens in Europe during WW II, hiding and calling to her sister. The sibling developed Parkinsons with a side of kidney stones and failing memory. Hullicinations only materialized during nights while in hospital which isn’t uncommon with older people. One of the interesting things regarding Parkinsons is some people develop symptoms up to 20/30 yrs prior. They develop symptoms of irritable bowls syndrome and colitis and that is what the doctors chase. However once the sibling joined the monthly meetings with the Parkinson Society here in B.C. she met others who had the same thing. That is where she learned its the first inkling you might develop Parkinsons. Some times it can be dealt with by dietary restrictions, some times not. When I read the article and then how you compared it, you can see the problem with the President. In Canada all Supreme Court Justices and Senators must retire at 75. (Canadian Senators are appointed.) We don’t have a lot of really old M.P.s They are either voted out of office or they take retirement given they do have a lovely life time pension. Thanks for sharing your family’s history. There are a number of studies now showing a link between gut biome health and several neurological disorders, suggesting the gut-brain axis may be a route for both immune signaling affecting the brain and a path for infection in the brain. Gut dysmotility may be an early warning sign. Example: The emphasis recently on the Mediterranean diet may help not just because of its affect on cholesterol and cardiovascular health, but the accompanying change in conscious eating of foods that may improve gut health — all of which may reduce the risk of neurological damage and cognitive decline. At the same time there are studies showing links between specific genes and increased chances of developing a neurological disorder as one ages. Finding effective therapies will require holistic research and not following just one path. Unfortunately for our families, effective treatments are too late, and in the US, funding for research has been stymied by the current administration. We have a lot of work to do to fix this mess before we can find answers and treatments.