If you didn't see "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was one I've written a bit about in the past and was thrilled to see them do -- and do so wonderfully:  Medicare Advantage.  Despite its name, it's not Medicare, and is just on the good side of a scam.  And not always on "the good side."  Their report is terrific, dealing with all the important points (notably the convoluted Medicare Advantage rules, like if one spouse has a disease, the other spouse can be considered to have the same illness!), and is infuriating and hilarious at the same time.

There is also one of their funniest pieces at the end.  It would be funny on its own, but it parodies something earlier in the story which is what takes makes it such a joy.  I don't want to give away too much of it, just that I'll say it uses a real-life married couple (each of them Emmy winners), and while both are great in the segment, it's the actress's over-the-top, yet meticulous performance (a rare combination to pull off -- but then, she's a Northwestern grad, so she'll well-trained.  And yes, I'm biased...) that makes this stand out.

I think the full report is highly-worth watching.  But if it's simply not a topic of interest, I'll do something I haven't for previous "Last Week Tonight" videos -- provide where to jump to for both the closing sketch and the set-up.  The set-up comes around the 6:00 mark and runs for two minutes, which includes Oliver's follow-up, and the finale starts around 27:00.  It's just so well-done.  

I came across an excellent story yesterday, but one that overlaps with my article that I'd posted earlier in the morning, so my first thought was to let it pass.  However, it overlaps so much -- at times almost quoting what I wrote -- that I couldn’t ignore writing about it.  Especially since the person at the center is a major expert who actually knows professionally what he’s talking about, and I only quote such people.  (He also happens to be someone I’ve quoted very often in the past, so the overlap isn’t totally shocking.  But the timing of it coming the very next day is what leaped out to me.)
 
By way of reminder, in my article yesterday about a half-dozen truly bizarre events by Trump the past week – most of them not even the past week, but this week – I ended it by writing:
 
“And all this will keep getting worse.  Because Trump's dementia, which is degenerative, will keep getting worse.  And because he's not surrounded by anyone able, willing or competent enough to stop him.

“And all this keeps getting reported as individual events.  But it's not individual, it's who Trump is, especially now, as the dementia that expert psychologists have long said he has keeps getting worse...because dementia is degenerative.  These are not random, separate actions.  These are each part of a whole.

“And all this has just happened within days.  This isn't a look at Trump's nine months in office.  This is Trump's past week!”
 
When a tree keeps losing its leaves unexpectedly over time, that may not be standalone events at all, but rather is connected to a much greater problem.

Which brings us to what happened next.
 
After posting my article in the morning, I went on social media and promoted it with links to the piece.  And then came across an article from Politico. 
 
And there leaping out, was a headline that clearly caught my attention --

To the shock of no one who reads these pages, I immediately checked out the article.  And to absence of shock for me, the psychologist in question was Dr. John Gartner, a former professor at Johns Hopkins, who I’ve extensively quoted here.  Dr. Gartner has long-written and spoken extensively since early in Trump’s first administration that Trump has shown signs of early dementia (which is dementia where the person is still functioning), and also has “malignant narcissism” -- a specific medical disorder he has studied for years completely different from mere narcissism.

(I first came across mention of the condition in a 2017 article in Psychology Today by Rhonda Freeman, PhD.   She wrote, "A person with malignant narcissism has the potential to destroy families, communities, nations, and work environments.  Later adding.  "However, they process information in ways that can hurt society in general, but also the people who love or depend on them.)

The article I read yesterday was about the Sunday episode of the Daily Beast’s regular podcast, on which Dr. Gartner was a guest.  Gartner discussed signs that he, as a psychologist, has seen of Trump’s cognitive decline, which most people assume is just normal, including something I’ve referenced extensively here, how Trump totally makes up words when the ones he is looking for are left incomplete and then finished with a nonsense ending.  To the press and most people, this is simply dismissed as “Trump glitching,” but to psychologists they have a medical term for it:  phonemic paraphasia.  Dr. Gartner explained how this and the 79-year-old’s nonsensical speeches and repeated confusion are flashing signs of his “immense cognitive failure.”
 
“People don’t make those kinds of phonemic paraphasias if they’re tired or if they’re aging,” Gartner said. “It’s something very specific that is linked to dementia and organic, cognitive decline.”
 
But the part that leaped out to me was the overlap with yesterday’s article.  That Dr. Gartner didn’t view recent bizarre moments by Trump as individual events, just another weird action, but saw all of it together as a single piece, connected evidence of Trump’s dementia.  And also how recent and numerous the episodes have become.  Even though the episodes might not seem that way to the public who see such things as ordinary and there often get dismissed..
 
However, Dr. Gartner warned that Trump’s "impulsive and erratic behavior," which he sees as a psychologist, are not only symptoms of Trump’s dementia, but could get worse.  And that  is the danger, because dementia is generative.
 
The most notable recent example Gartner pointed to was Trump’s address to top military brass last month, showing how “disordered” Trump thinking is – that while to many people it was just typical Trump rambling, to a psychologist it displayed a similarity to dementia patients who “pick up on one concrete physical detail” and then “free-associate” away from the original topic.
 
Dr. Gartner pointed to the moment when Trump suddenly switched from talking about the morale of Marines to “Biden’s autopen,” before then focusing at length on the topic of “gorgeous paper.”
 
“We’re seeing a stone skipping along the water” Gartner said. “He’s going from one association to another, but it doesn’t make any linear sense.”
 
Even more recently – moving things to the “and only last week” dynamic I addressed -- Gartner noted that Trump had claimed stopping a “nuclear” war between Iran and Pakistan – but kept mixing up India with Pakistan. “It’s one thing to get a name wrong, maybe even to reverse it,” Gartner said. “But he’s actually confusing the countries themselves.”  Repeatedly.
 
Dr. Gartner added that Trump insisted he had “solved” a non-existent war between Cambodia and Armenia – which are actually 4,000 miles apart -- only days after having bragged he had stopped a war between Azerbaijan and Albania, confusing it again with another country, Armenia.
 
Gartner described Trump’s “clearly demented memory loss” as being evident when he forgot House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ name only one a day after having met with Jeffries about stopping the government shutdown.
 
“This is like when you go to visit your mother in the nursing home and you bring your sister and she goes, ‘Who’s that nice lady that you brought with you?’... I mean, it’s that level of non-recognition that we’re talking about.”
 
Gartner said that “because of his cognitive decline, [Trump] is focusing on things like the [White House] ballroom and the paper that he writes things on.”  In fact, on Tuesday, press secretary Leavitt -- thinking she was describing a happy positive -- said that Trump’s entire focus was “on the ballroom.” Ignoring that in a government shutdown, one would think his focus would be on ending the shutdown.
 
Gartner singled out, as well, the eighth boat strike, at the time of Sunday's podcast, among those that the U.S. military has recently undertaken.  That these have killed at least 37 people without any evidence of who was on board, all serve as a sign of how Trump's condition has degenerated.
 
And "It's going to get worse."

(By the way, it already has.  There have now been 10 deadly boat strikes.)
 
While most people see the brutality, whether they support the action or not, it fits into what the psychologist brought up as Trump displaying the aforementioned “malignant narcissism,” a severe personality disorder marked by paranoia and sadism.  It’s a condition that The Daily Beast notes has been used to describe dictators such as Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Saddam Hussein.
 
In fact, pointing to Trump declaring recently that “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them,” Gartner explained that this relates directly with how, only this past weekend, Trump posted the sickening AI video showing him wearing a crown while bombing “No Kings” protesters with a massive stream of excrement.
 
“The idea that he really just wants to s--t on everyone who disagrees with him, that’s literally how he feels because of the personality disorder,” Gartner said, explaining that with dementia, a sufferer’s personality disorders tend to get “more disinhibited, more grossly raw.”
 
Dr. Gartner predicted that as Trump gets older, he would use the power of his office in ways that are more “irrational” and “destructive.”
 
“It is so impulsive and erratic,” he said.  “This is really someone who could wake up and—in a state of complete confusion and erratic irritation—do something catastrophic.  And no one is going to stop him.”
 
These are not separate episodes.  They are not normal acts of Trump just being Trump.  They are all, to Dr. Gartner, evidence of a larger whole, which is dementia.  That is degenerative.
 
For those interested, here is the full podcast

​ 
The last couple of days, there have been two off-handed comments that got lost among much bigger news on the surface, yet which I think are not without meaning.  The first, its meaning small, except for showing a matter of bombastic stupidity showing the emptiness underneath.  The other, a matter that should be far more disturbing to the White House.
 
We’ll start with the most recent.  What made the news yesterday in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s appearance at the Senate Oversight Hearing of the Judiciary Commentary was her refusal to answer any question from Democrats, her off-topic deflections and her attacks on whatever Democrat was asking her a question.  But there was one attack response she gave that fell through the cracks which I think was significantly more problematic for her than the lack of attention it got.
 
There was a very weird thing that AG Bondi didn’t seem to realize when she was trying to slam Democratic senators for campaign donations from people who she said "knew" Jeffrey Epstein.  This, as far as I can tell, was (in her mind) a great coup-de-grace, never mind that there’s nothing remotely problematic with such a donation.  After all, the people who “knew” Jeffrey Epstein included renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, MAGOP financier Peter Thiel, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, Cate Blanchett, Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and George Lucas, among a great many others.  But putting that aside, what Ms. Bondi totally misses when attempting to slam the Democratic senators for accepting political campaign donations from people who knew Jeffrey Epstein is that her boss Trump said he was “best friends” with Epstein!!   
 
I mean, man, if just taking campaign money from someone who merely “knew” Jeffrey Epstein is so damning to Pam Bondi that she’d attack U.S. senators with it at a Congressional hearing… just imagine how disgustingly malignant she must think Trump is!
 
And the moment passed by, unnoted, a bit of unexpected oversight at the Oversight Hearing.
 
And second, something caught my eye on Monday after watching video of Trump being asked if he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell.  He reply got attention – but only for a non-answer he gave.  I think a far larger got overlooked for how he responded.  In fact – and I say this as a total amateur without any medical experience, except as a patient – but I think that Trump  he had a dementia moment.  I think Trump had no idea who Ghislaine Maxwell was. 
 
Now, to be clear, I know he does know who Ghislaine Maxwell is.  And I’m certain of that because he’s told us that on the record.  After all, in an interview on camera with Jonathan Swan of Axios, repeated several times that he wished well and was quoted as saying “I met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach.”  So, of course he knows who Maxwell is.  But I think that on Monday he forgot who she was. 
 
When asked if he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, there was a lot of deflecting ways he could have answered that would have been disingenuous, but thinly supportable without being able to contradict.  Instead, though, after being asked, he had sort of a blank stare, and then replied, "I haven't heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. I will speak to the DOJ."
 
Um, er…what??  There is no    way on earth could he not have heard Ghislaine Maxwell’s name “in so long”??  That is not possible.  The only way it is even in the realm of possibility is if, to Trump, “two days" is considered “long.”   It’s all the more unbelievable since just two weeks ago, her interview with Deputy AG Todd Blanch was made public.  And when Blanche went to question her in prison, there is no way on earth that his boss AG Pam Bondi would have sent him without getting approval from Trump.  And Trump would have had to more surely give his approval – if not order – to move Maxwell to a minimum security prison against all protocol.
 
Further, when then asked on Monday specifically about Maxwell being a convicted sex predator, it had no impact on him, and he just repeated, “I’ll have to talk to my DOJ advisors.”
 
Is it possible that that was Trump’s way of deflecting an answer?  Sure, most things are “possible.”  But is it probable or likely that that’s what he was doing?  No.  It’s too stupid and unbelievable by even Trump’s standards.  And those are standards for which he said there were airports in the Revolutionary War and that windmills cause cancer.  Trump sued the Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over them publishing a drawing he made an Epstein birthday book that Ghislaine Maxwell put together.  It is improbable that Trump was intentionally deflecting by his answer because he didn’t say his standard, “I barely knew him” response when trying to avoid a connection.  He didn’t deny knowing her.  Instead, he said he (impossibly) hadn’t heard her name “in so long” – a long enough time to suggest he hadn’t given any thought to pardoning her (despite having previously been asked the same question, and actually answering it, saying it was too early to know).  He just looked and sounded confused and didn’t seem to want to acknowledge he didn’t know who the reporter was talking about.  And kept repeating that “I’ll have to talk to my DOJ advisors.”
 
I think, based on no medical experience and purely guessing, that from how he answered the question and how blank he looked and how he kept repeating that he had to ask his advisors, and never once said “Ghislaine Maxwell” (because I don’t think the name registered with him) that when Trump replied, “I haven’t heard her name in so long,” Trump was having a dementia moment.  And not even just a senior moment, forgetting a name, but dementia, not knowing who a person is, unable to place perhaps the most famous, deeply-concerning, angst-related name to him for the past two months, someone who was likely on his mind daily and repeatedly each day, over whom Speaker Mike Johnson is keeping the House closed during a government shutdown so as to not have to swear in a new Democratic member which would force the release of the Epstein files.

Yes, of course, I could be wrong.  But Trump too often gets a pass and the benefit of the doubt for just “glitching,” when expert psychologists and psychologists have been saying for almost six years that Trump shows signs of early dementia, which is degenerative.  I don’t think Trump – a man who danced for half an hour during a campaign Town Hall and who recently took a walk on the White House roof and shouted answers to reporters far below on the ground -- gets the benefit of the doubt any more.  And I think – for all the reasons stated – that when Trump said, “I haven’t heard her name in so long,” and kept repeating over and over “I’ll have to ask my DOJ advisors,” he was having a dementia moment and didn’t have any idea who perhaps the most-important person haunting his life today was.
 
And the moment, too, slipped through not just Trump’s cracks, but the news, as well.  Unnoted in its oversight.

Put this in the Point of Personal Privilege File.

​I’ve written in the past of my cousin Andy Elisburg (his branch of the family spell it different, long story…), who is the Executive Vice-President and General Manager of the Miami Heat of the NBA.
 
A couple of days ago, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote a terrific article about Andy.  It wasn’t a typical sports article though, and nothing that most readers would have remotely expected.  But it’s one that tells a fascinating story worth repeating here.  Normally, I’d just post a link to it, but I’m embedding the full thing below for two reasons – 1) I suspect that few people would click to go read a long article on my cousin and so posting it here is just easier, even if it’s unfair to the journalist and newspaper, and 2) for those who would click on the link, they wouldn’t be able to read it, because the newspaper is behind a paywall.

The article is very well-written, and builds the story slowly.  Adding unexpected twists and turns along the way.  And the payoff is a yowza.  But since it’s long (and deservedly so, for the full tale), I’m sure that most people who read it in the Sun-Sentinel are Miami Heat fans.  Which is not the case here.  So, I want to give at least a hint of what the article is about, though without giving away too much of the twists and turns.

Two passages seem appropriate.

One comes near the beginning –

“Moments later, after weeks of negotiating hospital hallways, Elisburg maneuvers into the usual spot he has held on draft night in his three-plus decades with the franchise.

“Aides are on hand. His blood pressure is regularly monitored. As the Heat’s No. 20 selection approaches, those numbers rise, not from the aggressive infection that led to these unusual circumstances, but because of the comfortably familiar stress of the situation.”

So, that should give you an idea that this isn’t a normal sports story. Though, in fairness, the headline of the article sort of does, too.  But it's too subtle. Really. Honest.

And then there’s a second passage that stands out, which should make that point even more clear --

“It started late last season, as the Heat were fighting for their postseason life, when something felt off for the Maryland native who has come to be respected as one of the NBA’s ultimate salary-cap savants.

“An infection that initially had sapped strength and mobility, suddenly had become life and death.”

The fact that this comes even before the halfway mark in the story (or before halftime, to put it in basketball terms) should give an additional idea that there are indeed twists and turns to the tale.

Among the many things that stand out to me is how upper management was so supportive of this.  The “Pat” referred to throughout is Pat Riley, the former Los Angeles Laker Hall of Famer, and now president of the Miami Heat.  And “Micky” and Nick” are the father and son owners of the team.

Anyway, here’s the article --

It is June 25, NBA draft day. The practice court at Kaseya Center in downtown Miami again has been set up as a makeshift war room. All of the Miami Heat brass is there: Micky Arison and Nick Arison from the ownership wing, Pat Riley and Adam Simon from the executive wing, Erik Spoelstra representing the coaching staff.

All the while, one floor below, a rented ambulance is pulling into the P1 parking garage, where players, coaches and executives typically enter in privacy.

Moments later, a gurney is rolled into the Heat locker room, with general manager Andy Elisburg then transferred by a nine-member medical team to a high-tech wheelchair.

With the transfer complete, a sense of normalcy washes over the 58-year-old executive.
“And the line I’ll never forget was from one of the therapy people, who said I looked happier coming to my office than most people do going to their houses,” Elisburg says months later.

Moments later, after weeks of negotiating hospital hallways, Elisburg maneuvers into the usual spot he has held on draft night in his three-plus decades with the franchise.

Aides are on hand. His blood pressure is regularly monitored. As the Heat’s No. 20 selection approaches, those numbers rise, not from the aggressive infection that led to these unusual circumstances, but because of the comfortably familiar stress of the situation.

Moments later, Nick Arison, the team’s CEO, ceremonially hands the phone to Elisburg, as has been tradition at such a moment. Elisburg informs the league that the Heat’s selection is Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis.

“When I was done giving the pick,” Elisburg says now, “I was able to reach over and hang up the phone. And the people in the back, all the therapists, and all the doctors were so excited, ‘He’s using his core! He’s using his core!’ Because, for me, I hadn’t had the ability. It was an effort to do that.”

Fulfillment envelops the room, as Riley offers congratulations to all involved.

Then, moments later, reality again for Elisburg, whose dramatic rise in the organization dates to his time as a media-relations assistant at the team’s founding 38 years ago. The curfew for Elisburg’s return to the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center has been set for 11:30 p.m.

Another transfer from souped-up wheelchair to gurney.

Back to the awaiting ambulance.

Making curfew now the goal.

“I was in my room by 11:15. So I made my curfew with 15 minutes to spare,” Elisburg says with a laugh.

•••

When the Heat open training camp Tuesday in Boca Raton at Florida Atlantic University, Elisburg plans to be in attendance.

How he gets there is not as important as how he got here, to this life-balance stage of the fight of his life.

It has been a monthslong journey that largely has come in typical Heat stealth. The organization is bent on keeping the main thing the main thing, so Elisburg over these past few months has mostly conducted business as usual, even when it has been anything but usual.

At times, Riley sat alongside on a hospital bed, briefcase opened as if at a staff meeting at 601 Biscayne Boulevard, not in Miami’s medical district. At other times, the Arisons have stressed time off, only to be met with spreadsheets, suggestions and, ultimately, the franchise’s biggest personnel move of the offseason, the cap-complex trade for Los Angeles Clippers forward Norman Powell.

“All my time at Lynn I only missed one rehab session, and that was when we agreed to the Norm trade that Monday morning at like 9:30. I had a 10 o’clock rehab session and I just looked at my therapist and said I’m not making it this morning,” Elisburg says with a pride unique to the situation. “But I also had a 2 o’clock session, so I pushed the trade call to 3:30.”

For weeks, months, a support system encouraged him, one that very much put Heat Culture and Heat Nation into capital letters. From the ownership branch to the executive suite to the coaching circle to the locker room to the business side, it was as if the entire organizational chart had visited at bedside. Beyond the Arisons, Riley and Spoelstra, other visitors included team executives Eric Woolworth, Sammy Schulman, Raquel Libman, Michael McCullough, the Heat broadcasters and former initial public-relations boss Mark Pray.

“In a hospital,” Elisburg says now from his office suite, “it’s very easy to feel isolated. And I never took it for granted that so many people were willing to come and wanted to come. At one point in time, we limited it to certain days, because I had to make my work phone calls.”

•••

It started late last season, as the Heat were fighting for their postseason life, when something felt off for the Maryland native who has come to be respected as one of the NBA’s ultimate salary-cap savants.

An infection that initially had sapped strength and mobility, suddenly had become life and death.

“We were playing against Memphis on the second night of a back-to-back, and I was exhausted.” Elisburg says, as he begins to retrace an offseason like no other. “I just felt extra exhausted. I canceled an appointment I had that day, and I said, ‘Let me just sleep in and go to the game.’ I went to the game that night. Before the game, I was feeling fine. I was out there for a while. And then I just felt really lousy.

“I called back to the trainers and said, ‘When the doctors get here, let me know. I need to see ’em.’ I just felt really, really run down. My best friend (former Heat executive and college classmate) Marjie Kates saw me and was like, ‘You look gray.’ ”

The vitals at the moment came back fine, but an infection was detected in his foot.
“I didn’t stay for the game that night, and I started on antibiotics. Anyone who knows me, knows me not staying for a game is a big deal.”

Days passed, with a return to better health, as the treatment with antibiotics continued.
“It seemed like it was under control.”

It was not — even as Elisburg continued with his work through the balance of the regular season, the play-in tournament and the playoffs.

•••
​
“The day after the season ended,” Elisburg says of April 29, “I woke up in the middle of the night, and thought I threw a muscle in my back, one of those ones you get up and suddenly you fall right back down in the bed. It was like someone stabbed me with an axe in the back.

“I’d pulled a muscle before, so I thought I’d pulled a muscle.

“I got some medicine for it, stayed in bed for a few days. It was bad enough that I didn’t come to the exit interviews.”

And got worse.

“Two or three days later, it seemed to be getting better — but it never got really better. And then, over the weekend, it started feeling worse. I was having a problem sleeping, I hadn’t been sleeping at all. I thought I wrenched my knee. And it was getting worse.”
Team physician Harlan Selesnick had scheduled a home visit for a few days later. In the interim, Marjie and the team trainers said it might be time to get to the hospital.

“Me being me, I said, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.’ ”

On the scheduled day of Selesnick’s visit, “I started getting out of bed, and my left leg didn’t work. . .  . which is probably as scared as I’ve been in my entire life.”

Upon ambulance arrival at Baptist Doctors Hospital in Coral Gables, “I was a whole lot sicker than I realized I was. That’s where they discovered I had an infection throughout my body — in my knee, in my back. My kidney numbers, my liver numbers, everything was up and elevated.

“There were people who were not quite sure I was going to come out of that.”
Amputation of part of his foot followed, “amid concerns about my vital organs,” since his kidneys were essentially at dialysis level.

Multiple surgeries ensued, “like five or six that wound up having to happen over the next week to 10 days.”

•••

Medically, the worst was over.

Now the work was about to begin, work unlike anything that had come before, even for someone who acknowledges far more time spent in the office than at home.

“Nothing is more important than your health. I’ve heard it a million times. I’ve said it a million times. And I’ve meant it every time I’ve said it and every time I heard it,” Elisburg says. ” But when you can’t walk, it’s amazing what those words mean.
“I want my life back.”

So even amid those grueling rehabilitation sessions, ones that are still ongoing — now he is able to take steps through parallel bars while under close supervision — there has been a work-life balance. The body may have failed, but the mind remained sharp — salary-cap sharp, luxury-tax sharp, player-personnel sharp.

“One of my procedures was happening the day of the lottery and got delayed and kept being delayed. And so it wound up happening during the lottery. So I get out of the operating room, I get to the recovery room that I’m awake, alert enough to bring my friends in to see me, and my first question is, ‘So who won the lottery?’ ”

The Dallas Mavericks won, from the lottery seed the Heat would have held had they not made the playoffs.

The moment was not lost on Elisburg, even in that post-surgical moment.

“I said, ‘Well, that’s going to be an interesting thing.’ ”

After three weeks at Doctor’s Hospital, the move was made to the rehab facility.

“I had basically been in a bed for a month without moving. At that point in time, it was enough of a challenge just to be able to move, to be able to sit. It took like six people to be able to get me up to be able to sit on the edge of my bed, and I’m in agony of every step of the way of it happening.”

It had become clear what the main thing actually was.

“Pat and Micky and Nick, from the first time I got sick, basically were,  ‘You don’t have to do anything. Do not worry about work. You need to worry about taking care of yourself and being healthy. We will cover whatever has to happen here. You worry about you.’ That was the first thing they said to me.”

But the work also helped pass the time.

“It was hard for me to sit in a hospital bed and sleep or watch TV,” Elisburg says. “And after a while, I said, ‘I’ve got to get something going.’ I started making some phone calls, started talking about the draft and trades and things of that nature.

“When I would talk to Pat and Nick, I’d say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some information.’ Initially, it was, ‘You worry about you.’ I was like, ‘I need to do this. I need something to get my mind going.’ And it went to now we started to have regularly scheduled meetings.

“There were times when Pat came over and we sat and just were talking, it was just there for support. And there were other times we had meetings and discussed what the next strategy would be. And we did it from my chair or my hospital bed. Mentally I was in a good place. Keeping things going with my mind was really good for me.”

•••

That normalcy allowed for a degree of business as usual. Many outside the organization were not aware of the situation.

“There are times I got calls from GMs during therapy sessions. Now, the old Andy Elisburg, he would have been in the lobby having a phone call if a GM called during therapy. Now, it was like, I’m doing my therapy, and when I get upstairs, I’ll return the phone call. I had to change my approach to, ‘I need to focus on me and my health now ahead of work.’ Which is, to anyone who’s known me for any number of years, was not me.”

There also was no masking the situation as he dealt with other NBA executives and agents.

“Usually you get to, ‘How you doing?’ I’d say, ‘Well, that’s an interesting question.’ I was pretty open with the people I know. I was fairly forthcoming.”
No, not necessarily business as usual, but work getting done, trades made, players signed, cap ledger squared.

•••

Back at his Miami condo since mid-July, with therapy on an outpatient basis, Elisburg is also again spending time at the office, again a fixture at the practice court during scrimmaging and informal player workouts.

The logistics getting to that practice court have been simplified since that draft-night visit, even as normalcy remains a work in progress, including the inability to get to Micky Arison’s Hall of Fame induction two weeks ago.

“That one hurt a lot, and I wound up with a little bit more infection in the foot. And I decided doing things crazy is one thing, doing stupid things is something else.

“I’m probably (doing) about 80% of what I’d been doing at this point in time in September.”

“I’m doing well. There’s still a lot of roads ahead,” Elisburg says. “I’m still dealing with some infections, I’m still dealing with pieces of it.

“There’s nothing at this point in time that has had anybody saying I can’t walk. So I’m viewing myself as getting back to my life.

“But I also can’t go without saying my incredible appreciation for my family and everybody at both Doctors Hospital and Lynn for what they did to save my life.

“I walked into Doctors Hospital a lot closer to not being around than I realized then, and realized later.

“The nurses and the doctors and the therapists and all the people at Lynn and what they did and what they’ve done on a daily basis to get me where it is, because Erik’s line is so true, it’s about getting 1% better every day.

“Marjie was there every day at the hospital. My parents were there often. In fact, my dad also had to go to Lynn for therapy, so my mom was going back and forth to both rooms.

“The care of all the doctors and all the nurses, all the therapists and all my home health aides are why I’m here today. Look, it’s unfair what happened to me and I can sit there and look at that. But I also look at it as, ‘Look, I’m the luckiest person in the world. I love my life.’
​
“I’m looking forward to the season and lucky that I do something that I have such a passion for and still am able to do it.”

Years ago, I was back in Chicago having dinner with a friend, and at the time had a chronic cough, which my friend said might be pneumonia.  I knew it wasn't, just a periodic cough I'd get, but he was sure and kept on it.  Later that evening, I offhandedly brought the conversation up with my dad – who was a doctor with a half-a-century of experience.  Without even bothering to look up, he said, “You don’t have pneumonia.  If you had pneumonia, you’d have…” and listed half a dozen symptoms. 
 
As readers of these pages well-know, I’ve been writing for a long time that Trump has early dementia.  (“Early dementia” still being dementia, but the person is functioning.)  I don’t say that because I’m a doctor.  I’m not.  I say it because I’ve been reading from people who are doctors – psychologists and psychiatrists, experts in the field of dementia – who say that Trump has dementia and explain in detail why.  And have written articles and even books about Trump having dementia.  One who I’ve quoted from most is Dr. John Gartner, a former psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University.
 
(Dr. Gartner is the psychologist who’s said, “I tell people to look at Trump now because it’s the best you will ever see him,” because, as he explains, dementia is degenerative.  He’s also who said a year ago that he wouldn’t be surprised in three years to read about Trump wandering around the White House lawn in his pajamas and having to be taken inside by Secret Service agents.  And then a month or so back, there was Trump wandering around on the White House roof, surrounded by aides and the Secret Service.)
 
Occasionally when I bring this up online, people will reply that they don’t think so.  Which is their right, of course, not to think so.  But like me, they, too, are not psychologists or psychiatrists and have no expertise in the field.  So, they’re just going on unqualified opinion.  And that’s the issue.
 
Most people, myself included, look at a person and make a medical judgement without knowing what actual, underlying symptoms to look for.  Something that seems totally normal to most people is, in fact, a sign of a very real condition for something else. 
 
We see Trump repeat a story endlessly that isn’t true, that even has been debunked.  To us, that’s just Trump being Trump and lying.  To a psychologist, they write that that’s a sign of early dementia, and explain why and what it’s called.  Or we see Trump stumped on a word and make up a similar-sounding word to replace.  The press writes about that as just another “glitch,” but psychologists explain that, no, that’s actually something called paraphasia.  And is a sign of early dementia.  And…well, on and on.

By the way, just yesterday, at a press event in England he held with the British Prime Minister, convicted felon Trump referred to a conflict between "Aber...zijan and Albania."  It's actually Azerbaijan and Armenia.

And just yesterday, Fox ran a pre-taped interview with Trump.  Talking about drugs (which he was not on, as far as we know), he said, "You understand and we will be reducing drug costs over the next year, year-and-a-half, by not 50 or 60% but by 1000%.  Because if you think of a $10 pill -- it will be raised up from 10 to 20 because it's the world versus us, the world is the bigger place.  So it will go from 10 to 20 – it won’t go from 10 to 50 or 60 -- for them, which is bearable. And it will go from 10 to 20 for us."

This is not normal.  Just starting at something as basic as an adult actually thinking you can reduce any cost by "1,000%".  And it spirals to incomprehensible from there.  This can't be normalized.  This is like an eight-year-old trying to explain something to sound mature that he doesn't have a clue about.
 
So, lest one think, well, it's just a 79-year-old convicted felon being lost and confused while on parole, back in his work-release job as the most powerful man in the world, it was with great interest that I read an article three days ago in RawStory headlined, “'He's not doing well': Trump's last week has leading psychologists alarmed.”
 
It went on to describe how “A pair of prominent psychologists have reignited concerns about President Donald Trump's health, suggesting his recent displays of symptoms indicate more than typical age-related decline.” That came from a podcast, "Shrinking Trump," which the two doctors host and describe how they and "expert guests, conduct weekly sessions analyzing the psyche of Donald Trump."  It was on this particular episode that they argued that the 79-year-old president is exhibiting signs of "early dementia."  Those two doctors are Dr. Harry Segal and…Dr. John Gartner.
 
Gartner, the article noted, discussed a range of recent Trump behaviors that seemed normal, funny matters of ridicule to many, but were actually of notable issue.  Such as falling asleep at high-profile events.
 
"You're at the finals of the U.S. Open, a riveting performance... you're the center of attention," Dr. Gartner noted. "So how does Trump react? Oh, he's asleep again, just like he slept through most of the days of his criminal trial."
 
Dr. Segal pointed to Trump’s swollen ankles.  Not a matter of dementia, but as something concerning, nonetheless.  “"Congestive heart failure is what typically causes swelling, you know, largely swollen ankles," said Segal, a Cornell University psychology professor. "I think he's not, I mean, he's not doing well."
 
What also was alarming to Dr. Segal occurred during a 9/11 memorial event, where Trump appeared to have facial drooping. That brought about a lot of jokes.  But not to Dr. Segal.  He said, "When you see someone with half their face drooping like that, that's not just someone being tired, that's not a normal face. It's significant."

The article notes that the White House pushed back with a statement from Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former Navy Rear Admiral who was demoted to captain for reports of drinking and inappropriate behavior, but just reinstated two weeks ago now that Trump is back in office, who had once served as Trump's physician, but hasn’t treated him in years.  Yet he almost irresponsibly claimed "President Donald J. Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen. He is mentally and physically sharper than ever before."
 
Reality says otherwise.
 
You can read the full article here.

The Shrinking Trump podcast can be found on Apple here, and on iHeart podcasts here.
​

No, that's not a typo.  Bear with me.
​
The other day, Trump posted a long screed online complaining about what the Smithsonian Institution was exhibiting in its museums -- something that no president should spend even the time it takes to put a golf ball on a tee -- but this is Trump, trying to erase history and American culture, so sure, it's just Trump being Trump, ho hum, so normalize it.  But of course, it's as far from normal as is some lunatic saying he wants to re-sod all the National Parks with Bermuda grass because he knows more about grass than anyone in the world.  But that's Trump.  All that's Trump.

"I have instructed my attorneys," he said, "to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities, where tremendous progress has been made. This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the 'HOTTEST' Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums."

Keeping in mind that the opposite of "WOKE" is asleep.  And that to Trump, "progress" is cutting billions of dollars in scientific research from universities that benefit all Americans and the world.  In fact, I'm not even sure what qualities are required to have the "HOTTEST" country in the world -- unless he's talking about Climate Change.  Or bell bottoms.

The thing is, though, as reprehensible as it is for a president to want to change history and culture (especially when that president is clueless about both, like saying there were airports during the Revolutionary War in 1776 and not knowing we've had mail-in voting since the Civil War, 160 years ago), it wasn't even the worst thing he said about it all.  That was when he complained that the Smithsonian museums were focusing "too much on how bad slavery was."

I didn't know that was even possible.  More to the point, who says that out loud -- and on a big public forum??  Crying out that you think we're focusing "too much on how bad slavery was"??!!  Unless you're a white supremacist, or fascist, or delusional, or have dementia.  Or any combination of the above.  Which, of course, brings us back to Trump.

However, this isn't about Trump.  I know I say that a lot, that we know who Trump is and it's really about the MAGOP in Congress who enable him and vote to literally pass his policies into law.  But sometimes it deserves taking a look at that from a different angle.

Because, in this case, not only was there no uncomfortable pushback from any MAGOPs (that I'm aware of) about Trump saying that museums are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was" -- but it brought something else to mind: 

Supporting wholeheartedly a man who says museums are focusing "too much on ​how bad slavery was" turns out to be the hill the MAGOP in Congress have chosen to die on.

Not to mention, of course, all the other fascist, racist, anti-Semitic, white supremacist, crazy, delusional things he has long said and is now saying on a near-daily basis these days, as his degenerative dementia kicks in more, and he goes walkabout on the White House roof shouting down at reporters and waving his hands like a drunken mime.  And at a FIFI World Cup ceremony last Friday in the Oval Office holding up a photo of himself and, as he described it, "my good friend...a man called -- [dramatic pause] Vladimir Putin" that he was going to sign for him, knowing (he said) that Putin "may be coming to the World Cup -- or may not", never mind that Russia is banned from the World Cup, and the Russian dictator is an indicted war criminal by the World Court!  All the while wearing an insecure, desperately-needy cap saying "TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING".  And proudly showing off his picture like he got it from his celebrity crush.  While looking ever more old and tired from just having to attend a photo op event.

Yet above all that -- Trump saying that we are "focusing "too much on how bad slavery was" may stand out above it all. 

Because this is the hill the MAGOPs in Congress have chosen to die on.

This statement.  This man.  All of it.  The rounding up immigrants without trials and deporting them to wherever his wants.  The gutting healthcare.  The massive tariffs on every country in the world.  Arresting judges, arresting mayors, arresting members of Congress.  Handcuffing a senator and throwing him to the ground for asking a question.  The inflation.  The delusion.  The dementia.  And more and more.  And atop it all, there is Trump literally saying --

-- We are "focusing "too much on how bad slavery was." 

And the MAGOP have said, "This is the guy for me!!  This is the guy for our party!!!  This is who we are."

And lest anyone think this is hyperbole, this is not the first time in recent years that MAGOPs passed on criticizing slavery.  And by "recent," we're talking July, 2023.  That's when the Florida Board of Education officially approved new education standards, voted into law by the MAGOP legislature, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, for how Black history is taught in its schools.  The newly-released guidelines now teach middle schoolers that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

This is the law now in Florida.  Which DeSantis defended by saying we'll probably find that "some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life".

Parlayed, indeed.  Oh, those wily slaves.

And Trump has ratcheted that up, wanting everyone to think that we are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was".  This is MAGOP thinking.  This, literally, is even MAGOP law.  This is who the MAGOP are telling you they are.

And doing all this now while knowing that Trump's approval has plummeted to just a ghastly 38% a mere six months into his term.  And it's not going to get better for Trump.  Because he has surrounded himself with unqualified incompetents, who are only there to say "Yes."  And because he has dementia which is degenerative.

And for that, as the hole he's digging and the dementia he has keeps worsening, Trump claiming that we are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was" may be the high point from here on.

And this is the hill the MAGOPs in Congress have chosen to die on.

Yes, the press sort of covered Trump's statement about slavery.  And barely covered his high school man-crush photo story on Putin.  But not much.  It was just too normalized, because this is Trump.  But no, it is not normal.  It's significant.  And of course, there are so many critical Trump stories to cover with Trump.  But these two in particular, while small on the surface, are notable, most especially how we are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was."

Why?

Because this really is not about old, tired, fascist, white supremacist, delusional Trump with dementia, we know who he is.  This is truly about the MAGOPs in Congress who are okay with it all.  And are okay with their leaders saying that we are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was".

That has to be repeated again (and often), until it sinks in deeply to the national consciousness:  MAGOPs in Congress are okay with their leader saying that we are focusing "too much on how bad slavery was".

Actually, because this is the hill MAGOPs in Congress have chosen to die on -- it turns out that we are not focusing on it enough.