General Discussion

and I have no medical training. But I have seen a number of Alzheimer's patients progress through their disease. Broadly speaking (and again, I am nothing like a professional) it seems to me that there are two very common courses. Many people just quietly drift away into their own inner world. That is sad because their caregivers can see them slipping away, and they know what lies ahead. My guess is that is the most common profile.

However, I have seen some who instead turn extremely unpleasant, sometimes even violently so. It appears to me that these people are accustomed to being in control and they know they are losing that control and that is a very terrifying thing for a high-control person. I once was hired into an organization where the President had become unhappy with his highest ranking IT guy. When interviewing, the President described the situation as one where the IT guy used to get along with people, but had gradually become very difficult. The President interpreted that as the IT guy getting "too big for his britches", so to speak. The President felt like he needed a person who could come in innocently and learn the most important secrets of the operation, documenting processes, etc, so that eventually the President would be able to fire the guy.

Well, I did take that assignment, and the IT guy was unpleasant much of the time, but we found a way to get along most days. Anyway, long story short, about the time that I had documented enough of the system to where the guy could be released, his family pulled him out because he had reached an advancing stage of Alzheimer's. He died 2 years later.

I never knew him before he was quite unpleasant, but others told me it was a big change, but it happened over a period of 5+ years. What I am getting at is that an individual with a high-control personality can become extremely agitated, mean-spirited, continuously angry as they feel their ability to control their lives slipping away. I see exactly this in Trump. I did not watch the speech. I try my best not to see or hear anything from that guy these days.

It does make one wonder what all the hangers-on (Theil, Musk, Vance, Rubio, Miller, Bannon, and the rest) are thinking. They must know that this guy is well on his way to melting into a noxious pool of slime. Judging from Vanity Fair, the vultures are circling overhead. But I wonder, do vultures ever eat each other?