The elephant in the room - Donald Trump's physical and mental deterioration

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_Facebook_pages, Trump isn't among the top 30 most followed Facebook pages.

He won Facebook's EV, though! And if you don't count illegal followers, he's most followed since Reagan!

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I think you are fighting windmills, Ghost of Ruin. Trump has never had great mental capacity in the first place, only when it comes to running a con and defrauding people.

He's getting cancer?

Curing cancer!

Seriously, though. I get what hermit is saying. Trump's gross stupidity acts as a sort of protective shield for him. It's difficult to separate the stupidity from the ignorance from the pre-existing mental illnesses from drugs from the impact of whatever neurological disease he has. That is why I've focused so much on the decay of his ability to speak. The content of his speech has always been garbage, and he didn't bother with proper diction and grammar. But when he was running in 2016, he didn't have problems forming his words, he didn't slur, he didn't have regular myclonic seizures, or the verbal paraphasia.

And he could engage off-the-cuff. He did it a lot, even a year or two in to his term. Sure, he'd lie, mislead and fictionalize everything faster than it could be reported. Now, uncontrolled access to him is very limited, and all he does is reply with his old talking points before moving on. And he's starting to lose track of time more and more.

I think a strong case could be made that he's legally incompetent now, but its obvious that his enablers are going to keep him in front of the parade until he's incapable of being a figurehead. (And I still think that time will come before the 2020 election.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

(Removed broken link, was supposed to be a tweet about how the media edits Trump so he seems like he makes sense and speaks coherently, even though he doesn't.)

Case in point:

This will end.  This will end.  You look at flu season.  I said 26,000 people?  I�ve never heard of a number like that.  Twenty-six thousand people going up to sixty-nine thousand people, Doctor � you told me before.  Sixty-nine thousand people die every year � from 26 [thousand] to 69 [thousand] � every year from the flu.  Now, think of that.  It�s incredible.

So far, the results of all of this that everybody is reading about � and part of the thing is you want to keep it the way it is.  You don�t want to see panic because there�s no reason to be panicked about it.

But when I mentioned the flu, I said � actually, I asked the various doctors.  I said, �Is this just like flu?�  Because people die from the flu.  And this is very unusual.  And it is a little bit different, but in some ways it�s easier and in some ways it�s a little bit tougher.

But we have it so well under control.  I mean, we really have done a very good job.

[Dr. Arch]

I think you are fighting windmills, Ghost of Ruin. Trump has never had great mental capacity in the first place, only when it comes to running a con and defrauding people.

He's getting cancer?

I'm pretty sure it's a Don Quixote reference.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I think you are fighting windmills, Ghost of Ruin. Trump has never had great mental capacity in the first place, only when it comes to running a con and defrauding people.

He's getting cancer?

I'm pretty sure it's a Don Quixote reference.

I know. I just couldn't resist referencing Trump's idiotic belief that windmills or wind turbines cause cancer.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/JohnMTalmadgeMD/status/1233540409495822336

[Joe Republic]

https://twitter.com/mollyjongfast/status/1233838845629730816?s=21

[Koharu]

That picture has been messed with quite a bit.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I caught part of Mr. Trump's FoxNews town hall this morning. I have not had time to review the whole thing. Link to first part here.

Mr. Trump was exceptionally coherent (in comparison to his public appearances over the last ten months), and we finally got the back and forth on a single topic that I've been wanting to see, when the Fox News hosts were questioning him about his administration's coronavirus response. (Why so much of a Town Hall consists of Mr. Trump back and forthing with Fox News hosts is a different issue) While his responses were typical Trumpseak: repetitions of talking points, lies and evasions, they were coherent and on-topic lies and evasions. Additionally, the aphasia and particularly the myclonic siezures were completely absent during the segment I watched. (The orange clown face-paint is still there, though).

If he can maintain this level of function (I suspect a new drug regimen), it will be a massive boost to his campaign (he was basically back in 2016 form).

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Mr. Trump continues to appear to be free of slurring, aphasia and myoclonic seizures in his public appearances, and can stay on topic as well. Although, the content of his speech increasingly shows a deep disconnect from reality and naked psychopathy.

For example, overriding medical professionals  and refusing to tell senior citizens they shouldn't fly:
https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1236492109273862145

Or leaving a cruise ship to turn into a plague ship, because evacuating it would make his numbers look bad:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1236054778318393344

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/steven_metz/status/1237039852404838402

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

(Posting this here, because I don't quite think it's worth a new thread, it is about the disintegration of what passes for Mr. Trump's mind and personality, and I don't want to clutter the coronavirus thread with something that's far more about Mr. Trump than about the virus.)

“He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This”: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story

The problem is that the crisis fits into his preexisting and deeply held worldview—that the media is always searching for a story to bring him down. Covid-19 is merely the latest instance, and he’s reacting in familiar ways. “So much FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted this morning. “He wants Justice to open investigations of the media for market manipulation,” a source close to the White House told me. Trump is also frustrated with his West Wing for not getting a handle on the news cycle. “He’s very frustrated he doesn’t have a good team around him,” a former White House official said. On Friday he forced out acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and replaced him with former House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows. Trump thought the virus was “getting beyond Mick,” a person briefed on the internal discussions said. Trump has also complained that economic adviser Larry Kudlow is not doing enough to calm jittery markets. Last week Kudlow refused Trump’s request that Kudlow hold an on-camera press briefing, sources said. “Larry didn’t want to have to take questions about coronavirus,” a person close to Kudlow told me. “Larry’s not a doctor. How can he answer questions about something he doesn’t know?”

[Badger]

(Posting this here, because I don't quite think it's worth a new thread, it is about the disintegration of what passes for Mr. Trump's mind and personality, and I don't want to clutter the coronavirus thread with something that's far more about Mr. Trump than about the virus.)

“He’s Definitely Melting Down Over This”: Trump, Germaphobe in Chief, Struggles to Control the Covid-19 Story

The problem is that the crisis fits into his preexisting and deeply held worldview—that the media is always searching for a story to bring him down. Covid-19 is merely the latest instance, and he’s reacting in familiar ways. “So much FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted this morning. “He wants Justice to open investigations of the media for market manipulation,” a source close to the White House told me. Trump is also frustrated with his West Wing for not getting a handle on the news cycle. “He’s very frustrated he doesn’t have a good team around him,” a former White House official said. On Friday he forced out acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and replaced him with former House Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows. Trump thought the virus was “getting beyond Mick,” a person briefed on the internal discussions said. Trump has also complained that economic adviser Larry Kudlow is not doing enough to calm jittery markets. Last week Kudlow refused Trump’s request that Kudlow hold an on-camera press briefing, sources said. “Larry didn’t want to have to take questions about coronavirus,” a person close to Kudlow told me. “Larry’s not a doctor. How can he answer questions about something he doesn’t know?”

"But is Joe Biden suffering from dementia?!?"

[Joe Republic]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1254869376538468355?s=21


You could drive a truck through those pupils.  ⚫️⚫️

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Also from yesterday:
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1254941862407950337

(The symptoms I'd been tracking in this thread, the twitching and intermittent aphasia, seemed to disappear earlier this year when Mr. Trump started making public appearances with give and take again after several months where he only did scripted events. But after a couple months at a sort of 'baseline Trump' level of functionality with only his normal levels of stupidity, ignorance, evil, and mental illness, the last week has seen him take another dive in terms of functionality.)

[Joe Republic]

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255333793608671232?s=21

[Joe Biden 2024]

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255333793608671232?s=21

My head hurts after reading that.

[pbrower2a]

We have all been to funerals, and funeral directors and clergy are able to give some comfort to the grieving. They expect people to grieve and suggest that holding back is self-destructive. If we did not feel loss we would be more mechanical than human. I am satisfied that such intelligent animals as dogs and elephants (the latter rivaling us in intelligence) grieve, too.

Trump has long seemed to lack some of the normal decencies that underpin normal life.  But even if one has gaps in one's feelings one can learn some of the tricks of the trade of showing sympathy to the afflicted. Such is essential to political leaders. Dubya may not have mastered that skill, but he did better than does Trump.

If you are the chief of police or the head of a big-city fire department, then you will have to address a loss of a hero. The President cannot get away with being a cold-hearted executive 100% of the time; there will be tragedies, including mass tragedies. Dealing with those is part of the job.   

[emailking]

That clip, what even 🤣

[QAnonKelly]

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1255333793608671232?s=21

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1255689966081970177

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1255689966081970177

But sleepy Joe!

[QAnonKelly]

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1257096729905618944?s=20

[T'Chenka]

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1257096729905618944?s=20

He can literally just beckon a White House intern and tell him to spend an hour or two researching World War One while Trump sits on his butt and watches Fox News. Requires no effort. But no, he has to trainwreck.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If Spanish flu had ended the Great War, Germany would've won as it was the Allies who were most affected.