Trying to teach those pigs over there to sing will waste my time and annoy them.

is one indicator of the onset of dementia (of which Alzheimer's is only one example).

Does she have trouble with word-finding often? (It seems to me she apologizes for 'mis-speaking' fairly often.)

We've already had one President who began to decline into dementia -- and some have suggested that early-stage dementia might have been a factor in keeping Reagan 'out of the loop' during the Iran-Contra era (if he was, actually out of the loop).

She's of an age where early-stage dementia could be developing (as is Bernie, I know, and as am I). But it's just within the realm of possibility that events that look like mis-speaking or flip-flopping or just plain lying could be the 'brain-farts' (I hate that term) that come more and more often as we reach a certain age.

(I remember quite distinctly when my Mom went from ordinary-aging memory gaps to the dementia-related troubled with word-finding. We lived far apart, but I called her at least 1-2x a week, and I made a point of eliciting her little stories about the time between calls. She always drank tea with breakfast and set the table before she went to bed. One evening I called her, and at some point she started to tell me a little story about something that had happened while she was setting the table. She was speaking as quickly and accurately as she always had until she said 'while I was putting out the cup and -- and -- oh, you know, the thing'. I was suggesting words and phrases (the plate? etc) but she kep replying 'no, no, not that, the other thing -- you use it when -- you know, you know, it's round -- oh, I use it all the time, I know what the word is . ..' She was getting frustrated and agitated, so I said 'it'll come back to you; is it enough that I understand that the thing happened while you were setting the table?'. Allowed that that would do, but was really aggravated with herself. She continued with her story, and after several moment she interrupted herself to exclaim, 'The saucer! That was the word I couldn't remember!' This was totally new behavior for her, and it scared the starch outta me! These days, I'm old enough to have ordinary age-related memory problems, AND I have 'cognitive deficits'( from an injury by industrial chemicals), and those deficits include trouble with word-finding. The word-finding problems increase with stress or fatigue. And I can tell you that the ordinary memory problems that come to many of us with age are a very different experience than deficit-related loss of words. ordinary memory-related loss of words (for me) is brief, at most 3-5 seconds before I find the word. If it's the deficit-related kind of loss, my mind becomes a complete -- my mind's eye sees only a black emptiness in the middle of my mental movie screen. If its a not-too-bad event, I might be able to come up with something like 'it's round, it's flat, you put it under a cup'. If its a worse event, I might not even be able to come up with that much.)

Sorry to go into such a long digression about my experience of age-related and deficit-related moment of loss of word-finding. But *if* a candidate is in the early stages of either version, this would be an important thing for the public to know about *before* the election. Given the kinds of problems our next President will be dealing with, I don't think we could afford to learn -- near the end of an 8-year term, as we did with Reagan -- that the President has been suffering serious 'cognitive deficits' for some years, with that knowledge being kept from the public and others working behind the scenes to fulfill the position.

If there are those of you who often watch her speaking (not reading a prepared speech), I wonder if you could keep your eyes peeled for indicators of problems with word-finding?

Her whole comment was centered around the fear of AIDS and the lack of willingness to talk about it...And how courageous Mrs. Regan was in bringing the topic into the public conversation. I was a young woman in the 80s. I worked in healthcare. NO ONE has ever been afraid of dementia in the same way they were then of AIDS... and Mrs. Regan didn't start speaking out about Alzheimer's until after she was out of the WH and her husband was publically diagnosed.

I am not sure what happened but if this was a "brain fart", then it was colossal. Not only did she get the disease wrong and the response to it, she got the decade wrong too.

And THEN to go back to NBC and get them to allow her a "do over"? Wow....

in very strong terms. Witness the video

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox7F9kFzC1w]

Clearly, HRC starts talking about Nancy Reagan's work on Alzheimer's and then volunteers to go further and add additional praise for their phantom heroics in bringing AIDS into the national conversation. (How, by not even acknowledging its existence? Man, that is some wicked 11th dimensional chess!) This was nothing more than a rewrite of history.

I figured out a very very very long time ago that you can fulfill the "not speaking ill of the dead" edict by simply not speaking. You don't need to make up good stuff to say about them.

She, apparently, never got that memo.

I know of three instances now: This Reagan/HIV "memory", her grandfather memory, and the most significant...and repeated! "memory" of the Bosnian tarmac.

It is exceedingly frightening to think of a person subject to false memories being in a position of power and decision making. That she can sound so authoritative and firm while putting forth her false memory is also terrifying. If this doesn't scare you ...it should.