Good morning, my friends. It's second cuppa coffee time, and I'm looking through the headlines, shaking my head, rolling my eyes, and waiting for the "aha" to hit - the outrageous or ridiculous or alarming thing that I just can't NOT write about.

You ask me all the time, don't I get overwhelmed? And yes, I do. But I have a way to deal with that. I write. I get it all out. And then I get feedback from YOU, and validation, and additional information, and emotional support. And THAT gives me a better handle on it which leads to having a sense of stability and even control.

Suddenly, I am not alone in the dark scary forest with a quagmire under my feet, and sharp toothed creatures stalking me behind the trees.

You are there, and you are not empty handed. You are carrying flashlights and maps and tents and blankets and food and water. You bring your knowledge and experience and just as importantly, your sense of humor.

So, rather than starting off with the grim stuff, like I said on Monday, let me just chat with you about what I am seeing and sensing lately. Please chat back. I really want to know what you are thinking, too.

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If you don't know me that well, yet, this is not a group or professional page, just my personal profile page. I have not monetized it. I am retired and nobody is paying me. I do not take donations, and I have stayed off platforms that use subscriptions. No, I am NOT rich, LOL. I am just at the age and stage of life that I refuse to ever be beholden or have to answer to any boss or corporation or social organization or entity again. No more crap. I love debates and discussions, but I will not stand for disrespect or abuse from anybody. Not towards me, and not to my friends here on this page.

One of the many jobs I enjoyed was working on various local AM radio stations doing talk shows and the news. I got REAL good at skimming the news for the important stuff, connecting the dots, and condensing it simply for a three-and-a-half-minute newscast. On the nose, to the second, so there would be room for the weather, traffic and commercial spots.

I really appreciate good journalism and I gotta tell you, I am SO pissed off at what I am seeing these days!

Mainstream news, either because their owners are so afraid of lawsuits or Epstein-type threats, or because they have been BOUGHT with government contracts and investments, have done their best to muzzle truly hard-hitting reports.

Trump propaganda media has been elevated by the White House to "legitimate" status. Most people do not know the difference between tabloid reporting, magazine stories, punditry, opinion, or journalism anymore. For the record, I regard myself as a pundit. I am a commentator. I gather reports from a wide variety of sources, and I do my radio thing.

As for independent online journalism, I am losing patience lately with most Youtube podcasters, because EVERY title graphic these folks use is sensationalized click bait - some Emergency Chaos that will End It All - which they will tell you all about, but first please click this, this, and that, and buy their book and watch their ad. And then, ten or fifteen minutes later, when they FINALLY get to what they were hyping, its pretty much a nothingburger.

At least half of them are about Trump is "dying" and losing his mind. And yes, he has both physical and mental issues... but... no, their hype is just the same old stuff we already know about.

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HOWEVER. The past few months there has been a definite change in him, both physically and mentally, and this is accelerating. Rapidly.

Trump is a performing artist, and he has used scripts all his life. He portrays two fictional characters. The first is his stage persona, which we all know well.

He used to be able to keep to his script, and even "weave" all kinds of personal observations and anecdotes and stories into them without losing the narrative. But his real talent was in turning to the audience, or to the officials he was using as props, and getting them to laugh, applaud and nod on cue.

Once he got them to participate with him, they were his.

And then there was the OTHER character he created. The one everyone who has met him in person has commented on. "He's not like that when you sit down and talk to him," they all say with surprise. "He's so reasonable and CARING." Uh huh.

We all have gotten a glimpse of THAT character. It's like he takes off a mask. His voice drops, no longer strident or sing-songy, but soft-spoken and "normal". No-no-no, he says with a little laugh, he is not REALLY going to do such-and-such, he just has to SAY that so that the press and "our" adversaries will take him seriously.

THAT is the persona he uses to sweet talk donors and investors. The one he uses behind closed doors to make deals. To win converts to his cult. To seduce.

Who is the REAL Trump? The one who scares the shit out of his staff and the GOP. The erratic, childish tyrant who LIKES to torture people. Who needs to assert his dominance and be the center of attention every single moment. The one who threatens, not with violence, but with "dirt," or lawsuits, or taking away their positions or contracts or access to MONEY.

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And that leads us to where I am going with this. More and more, he is losing control of his stage personas, and he can no longer keep to his script. His REAL self is no longer kept behind the curtain, but is out in full view, constantly threatening. No more happy official portraits or coin images, just glowering, nasty images of his inner self.

He uses only a few phrases now. Someone is either "highly respected" or "low IQ" or "fake". He repeats the same line over and over and over again. He has apparently only a handful of lines he can remember, and he trots them out to answer every question, no matter the subject. When he goes OFF script, he loses his place, and cannot weave his way back. And he is forgetting words.

Yesterday at the Oval presser with the President of Lebanon, he tried to change the subject of his disastrous war in Iran to Venezuela. How easy and quick his "war" was. How he's taking millions of barrels of oil out, like nobody has ever seen before which has paid for "that violent war" ten times over, like nobody thought was possible.

He said Venezuela is now a very HAPPY place, [OOPS. HE JUST REMEMBERED THEY ARE NOT] "but, uh, they had a tragic incident, uh, with the event that took place, a couple of days ago, uh, a couple of weeks ago, what a, uh, what a terrible thing that was, uh, they had a movement, a shifting, uh, that was unbelievable, nobody's ever, THEY've never seen anything like it, a lot of people were killed, so it's all unrelated [WHAT?] and by the way, we were one of the first ones there to help, we were there to help, Venezuela, [LIGHT DAWNS! YOU CAN SEE IN HIS EYES HE SUDDENLY REMEMBERS THE WORD] it was an EARTHQUAKE, I guess you'd CALL it, uh, a pretty massive EARTHQUAKE, and we were able to do a lot of good."

In the middle of all that fishing around for the word he could not remember (um, man, woman, person, TV, camera?) Trump turned to President Aoun as if he expected him to jump in like one of his aides and give him the word he was looking for. Trump did the same thing at the NATO Summit, looking at Rutte the same way when he got stuck. He does that more and more now.

He also closes his eyes immediately when someone he's with starts speaking, even if he is standing up. It's like he is either on or he is off. He turns on when the spotlight is on him, and off when it is not.

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He's constantly mentioning "genes" now, and the "racehorse theory" that the supremacists of the third reich promoted. Well, speaking of his own, his father developed Alzheimer's at his age, and it progressed rapidly.

I worked with nursing home dementia patients for a lot of years as a music therapist (one of the other jobs I loved) and got pretty familiar with the different forms and presentations of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease. I certainly am not qualified to diagnose anybody, but the things I am seeing in him are pretty dang familiar.

He simply does NOT have two more years, I believe, or even until January. In fact, I will be surprised if he lasts until the Midterms. Not that he would die, of natural causes at least, but simply because he can no longer play his part.

The GOP and the billionaire donors behind Project 2025, who want to replace our government with a Corporate model, have all put up with and catered to his tantrums and whims because it has paid off for them. Until NOW.

But his war with Iran, his disruptive social media decrees, his obsessions, and his paranoia are getting harder to manage. Damage control is getting impossible because he not only countermanding their efforts, he is kicking those people out of the room-where-it-happens, and choosing new "favorites" all the time.

Stephen Miller was reportedly even exiled for a while. Trump now has three young female aides in constant attendance, 24/7, plus Karoline Leavitt and Susie Wiles. But he seems to be keeping all the men remaining in his orbit more and more at arms length.

They are losing their grip on him, and he has lost the grip on himself.

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I honestly thought that Trump would step down after his birthday last month, and retire with a full pardon, with promises for lucrative government contracts for his sons, and a permanent place on the world stage through the Chairmanship of his Board of Peace.

I still think it will happen soon. But maybe not voluntarily any more.

He is mentally intact enough to know he will lose the Midterm elections, but he obviously thinks he can overturn them one way or another - maybe with a whole batch of ways - or by using some kind of "emergency" to stop them completely.

But that may not be PROFITABLE for his backers any more, not the way it would be if he was still running the show COMPETENTLY as its front man.

Plus, there has been a HUGE shift in power, wealth, and alliances in Europe and the Middle East, as a result of Trump's bungling. China has gotten stronger, not weaker. And Putin has become a loose cannon, with the potential to cause as much damage to their tidy plans as Trump.

They have miscalculated. And the sociopathic sharks who rise to those positions of power do not operate out of sentimentality or compassion or lofty principles of morality and justice.

Or patriotism. They have international interests. They are not doing it for God or party, either. It's all about THEIR money, and THEIR power. They will cut their losses. And they will invest elsewhere. And that may not even be in America.

Some of his biggest donors are not from HERE, after all.

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The only thing I know for sure is that change is coming, and it will come soon.

OK. That's my two cents. What are you seeing, and what are you thinking?

- Glee Violette