Donald J. Trump, your time's almost up!

A reader and former neighbor back in DC thanks me for writing the blog. "I do enjoy reading your blog. You comment on many interesting subjects, and I like the issues you address." 

I do enjoy writing the blog, but, of course, readers are the main point. I cannot correspond regularly with my friends all around the world, so the blog is a shortcut. https://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/

But if folks want to send me individual emails, I will always try to answer. 

=========================================================

Virginia Elva Cadd living here nearby in West Virginia has just celebrated her 107th birthday, Happy Birthday, Miss Virginia Elva!

I found out about her birthday, not online but on The Morgan Messenger, a local print newspaper. Yes, those still exist. 

==================================================================

Unfortunately for Donald Trump and for all of us living under his erratic presidency, he seems to be missing a few marbles, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, and is not actually playing now with a full deck.

 Even as a younger man, Donald Trump got into Wharton only because his older brother intervened with someone he knew there. That was the only way. 

Because Donald Trump recently got every question right on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), he now considers himself a veritable genius, often bragging about his high score. MoCA is actually a screening tool to highlight mild cognitive impairment, not an IQ test. (I myself "passed" MoCA in just a few minutes.) Trump seems to be blissfully unaware of his own intellectual shortcomings, as are many of the folks who have mistakenly voted for him. It's unfortunate for Trump that he is so intellectually challenged and even seems to be sinking further into dementia, but at his current age of 80, that always can happen. 

 

When my son and I were eating lunch at the Coolfont Resort restaurant, there sitting at a nearby table, we noticed a couple eating with their daughter with Down Syndrome. Not to disparage folks with intellectual disabilities, but that young woman was not trying to be our US president, as Donald Trump is doing now, though he seems totally unaware of his failing and deteriorating mind. 

As for older folks who become increasingly forgetful, the Alzheimer's Association says: "Alzheimer's and other types of intellectual decline are not a normal part of aging. Yet the greatest known risk factor is increasing age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer's are 65 and older." 

So there seems to be some sort of contradiction in that statement. Maybe intellectual decline actually is a "normal part of aging," just as with physical decline. Many if not most people as they grow older experience both physical losses and increasing memory glitches.

So if Donald Trump's memory and thinking were never top-notch even when he was younger, they are likely to decline even further, not now to improve with age. I am well aware myself at age 88, that I am getting forgetful, writing reminders on a daily calendar and relying on my son to keep me informed.  

We've already discussed on this blog the case for having upper age limits for elective office, as well as minimum ages. Joe Biden was right to decline to run for reelection at age 82, as his remaining days now seem to be numbered.

========================

As previously mentioned, I've visited some 40 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia on various humanitarian missions. I've also been to all US states, including Hawaii, only with the exception of Alaska, though now am unlikely to ever get there. As for visiting any more countries, since my passport has expired, I'm not sure now about ever getting another. At age 88, I am no longer the eager world traveler I once was. But Spanish, like English, is a language I won't forget. Even now, I sometimes dream in Spanish.

As we get older, we do run out of steam, out of energy, out of ideas, so age is more than just a number. Yes Donald J. Trump, now your own number is up! 

====================================

Donald Trump has inaugurated a new helipad for his helicopter, but his time in office is growing quite short and the next president may not actually need it. 

Wash. Post, Three more Trump-endorsed candidates lose their primaries

Maybe a Trump endorsement has become a liability, no longer an asset. 

CNN, National debt soars to $40 trillion in less than a decade. 

Wow!

===================================================

Yesterday, right as the clock showed 5 PM, all posting on this blog suddenly went haywire; everything just became jumbled, all upside-down and backwards. Even unplugging the computer for a couple of hours didn't actually help.

Apparently, that is the hour when everyone around here goes online, so the airways get all clogged up and it's time to just stop. My son was at work, as his hotel's computer system has installed a mechanism to compensate for this common problem, but it's not something we can afford for our home. 

I am going to post this right now, at 1 pm on Thursday, August 20, then start on another post for tomorrow. Let's not try pressing our luck.

                                                                        Hello kitties