It's Time To Talk About Grandpa

      Watching Donald Trump this year alone is almost like watching Dorian Gray decomposing after seeing his own portrait in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

      It's almost been that rapid. And we've been treated to so many examples of his incipient decrepitude that no matter how loudly Karoline Leavitt or Steven "Oddjob" Cheung shriek, "Fake news!" it doesn't alter videotape evidence of Trump slurring words, falling asleep in the middle of the day or tacking and zig-zagging down a red carpet because he can no longer walk in a straight line.

     There's also the near-nightly shit postings and re-postings on Truth Social while he's gorging himself on ice cream and throwing away sterling silver utensils as if they were made of plastic. Trump's already past the point where families would typically have an intervention and take away grandpa's car keys.

     Take the G7 in France recently. Trump needed to be supported by India's Modi because he couldn't lift his bulk up one step. Another time, while the world leaders assembled for a "family" photo, Trump wandered away like a distracted two year-old and had to be led back to the group. Then there was the handshake with French President Macron in which Trump offered his hand vertically and had to do a complex series of moves just to shake his hand.

      We know Trump's been to Walter Reed three times in the last 13 months. During at least most of those times, he was given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or the MoCA, which is a preliminary test given to patients when their doctor thinks they're suffering some cognitive dysfunction such as dementia. The very fact that Trump persists in believing that it's an intelligence test (identifying a camel or lion?) that no else can pass is proof positive of how far he's gone 'round the bend.

     And just today in Pennsylvania, Trump resurrected his pipe dream of illegally running for a third term, as if he'll actually be able to stand up straight by January 2033. Hasn't anyone noticed that all year long during Oval Office press conferences, Trump's always sitting down and never stands behind a podium any more?

      So, if we're already at the car key snatching phase, shouldn't the government also be seriously discussing the 25th amendment? The presidency isn't a birthright or a patronage position. It belongs to the legitimately-elected person who's mentally and physically capable of undertaking the rigors of running the most powerful nation on earth. 

     Trump is neither of those things. Trump is showing clear signs of having suffered a series of strokes that have left him so feeble he can't even get out of a chair without dropping like a sack of potatoes (witness the shooting in Butler in July 2024 and when the Secret Service had to heave him out of his chair at the WH Correspondent's dinner).

     And the people who are spin-doctoring for him plainly care less about our democracy and natioal security as they do about protecting Trump's infamously egg shell-fragile ego and avoiding his ever-present wrath. His anger management issues alone should get him thrown out of office not to mention his contentious divorce from reality.