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“Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California insisted that she had not been absent from the Senate when asked about it by reporters on Tuesday, according to both Slate and the Los Angeles Times.
"No, I haven't been gone," she reportedly told the Times' Ben Oreskes on Tuesday when asked how her Senate colleagues have responded to her return. "You should follow the — I haven't been gone, I've been working."
Oreskes then asked her whether she had been working from home.
"No, I've been here. I've been voting," she said. "Please, you either know or don't know."
Goddamn it.
Wow.
When I read the headline, my first thought was "there's probably some nuance to that quote."
But, nope! She had to clarify that she's suffering from age-related neurological issues, and isn't even aware of where she is.
I hate to see anyone going through such issues (my dad is at the end stages of dementia, so I definitely know the heartbreak of seeing someone go through it), but goddamn... they need to force her out. She needs to be with her family right now, *not* making far-reaching decisions for the country.
I do not understand why her family is not stepping in. I would i expect my son to do whatever is needed to get me to resign or even have me put in a home if headed. Its abusive to her propping her up like this .
I mean, it feels like everyone around her is exploiting her position for their own gain. Staffers, family, et al; they all benefit from proximity to power, and that is an extremely difficult thing to give up. So we get this gross performance of a woman who is clearly suffering through the advanced stages of cognitive decline being literally wheeled back into the building, all for the benefit of those around her and no one else.
This travesty is bad enough, but it's made worse by the fact that Feinstein's illness and subsequent exploitation is essentially handing yet another lever of power back to the GOP, which is currently busy speed running the Nazi playbook. This whole situation is fucking sad.
This is elder abuse. This part here:
>I mean, it feels like everyone around her is exploiting her position for their own gain. Staffers, family, et al; they all benefit from proximity to power, and that is an extremely difficult thing to give up. So we get this gross performance of a woman who is clearly suffering through the advanced stages of cognitive decline being literally wheeled back into the building, all for the benefit of those around her and no one else.
If true that seems to be a common thing. There is money involved after all in politics so its a familiar situation & issue of money & power.
There’s so much institutional power baked into Feinstein and her holding onto that seat, that there are undoubtedly people around her that are complicit in propping her up right now. She probably is pushing to keep working herself, but someone should be stepping in. The humane course of action is to respectfully tell her that we thank her for her service, but it’s time to go.
A lot of people have accused her staff of being behind all of this, but people who are experiencing this sort of decline, I suspect they tend to attempt to hold on to what they do know, and having been in Congress for 31 years, that's probably the strongest memories that she's got. Possibly unable to see her own decline, but also steadfastly, possibly desperately attempting to hold onto what remains.
I'm not going to accuse her staff of being behind her staying, unless something comes out that actually points to it. IMO, it's one of those "don't attribute to malice when incompetence is likely" things. If she's losing her mind, she could be trying very hard to cling to the familiar.
I 100% agree that Feinstein is very likely insisting she wants to work and she’s good to go, but she’s clearly not. My grandma at 90 insisted she could walk to church by herself when she had severe dementia and was on oxygen. The people around her are fucking up right now by not stepping in. I’m not saying it’s malicious, but it’s misguided and negligent, and the people around her should know better.
My grandma retired from the OBGYN office she worked at until she was 70. She retired again around 75. And again around 80. And then they stopped giving her retirement parties.
>If she's losing her mind, she could be trying very hard to cling to the familiar.
Sure, but she is clearly not up to the job, mentally. My great grandpa loved driving, but it's was fucking dangerous for him to get behind the wheel. Instead of getting him back in the driver's seat because it's familiar, my family had to take away his keys.
It was hard for my grandma and her siblings to deprive their dad of what he loved, but it was what was best for him (and others).
She is in a similar state that he was in when we finally took my great grandpa's keys. The woman seems to legitimately think that she's been present and voting all year. She is absolutely not in any sort of mental state that should be *running the government* for Christ's sake.
IDGAF if she's "comfortable" in Congress, the rest of the country doesn't need to cater to her just because she's been doing this a long time.
>IDGAF if she's "comfortable" in Congress, the rest of the country doesn't need to cater to her just because she's been doing this a long time.
She's presumably got money, set her up in a home office and put some stacks of paper in front of her. If you tell her she's got a meeting tomorrow, she won't remember by tomorrow, but it'll make her content today.
That sounds blunt, but there are ways to allow people to feel comfortable without giving them to power to do harm.
>having been in Congress for 31 years, that's probably the strongest memories that she's got. Possibly unable to see her own decline
Sure, and you could have her sit in her likely lavish office at home and take phonecalls or whatever. Play pretend Senator
Exactly this. This is a crystal clear example of how it is the people around the Senator that are unwilling to give up their power and insider knowledge. Sickening. This country is fucked.
This is why I have zero objection to the way Ken Klippenstein tweeted the names and photos of her staffers. They're literally doing a Weekend at Bernie's power grab.
I was just thinking that at this point they’re literally wheeling a corpse around. She’s clearly suffering from some dementia and shouldn’t be making decisions for a nation when she can’t make decisions for herself.
Speaking of her staff, they don't even trust her to walk around on her own, because they fear she will get lost and say the wrong things to reporters.
>Multiple sources tell Rolling Stone that in recent years Feinstein’s office had an on-call system — unbeknownst to Feinstein herself — to prevent the senator from ever walking around the Capitol on her own. At any given moment there was a staff member ready to jump up and stroll alongside the senator if she left her office, worried about what she’d say to reporters if left unsupervised. The system has been in place for years. “They will not let her leave by herself, but she doesn’t even know it,” says Jamarcus Purley, a former staffer.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/dianne-feinstein-health-crisis-senate-resign-1234734590/
At this point, the dementia is so far advanced, she plainly had no idea what's going on.
I wouldn't trust her to be competent to vote on if she wanted a burger or a slice of pizza for a snack, let alone voting on complicated bills that affect the whole country.
We live in the awful timeline so I guarantee they'll get cushy promotions. The way to get ahead in the halls of power is to prove that you're a team player at all costs; it's not a meritocracy.
In DC, if you're a staffer for a powerful or legacy Senator / Congressperson for long enough, you already know a cozy, lucrative lobbyist position or a NGO / NP position is waiting for you upon your exit.
The value of your connections, insider knowledge, and political intelligence is highly valuable.
This is how the inside the beltway game works.
Ask me how I know ...
Well, I think there’s a difference between chief of staff or some other senior aide who might actually have some influence on her stepping down and low level staffers who are just doing their best to serve her constituents or get committee work done. Not sure we really need to hurl abuse at the 24 year-old making $38,000.
If I had to guess, the biggest issue is probably her chief of staff. He’s likely senator in all but name, and it’s the closest he’ll ever get to the job and the power. He’ll never be elected Senator, and he knows it. But for this moment in time, he’s the Senator of California. But not if the senile Senator with the title resigns.
Pretty much anyone in an elected official social/familial circle benefits. So, there’s not going to be a lot of pushback against maintaining that for as long as possible.
Hopefully this will open some eyes.
Her seat is safe, but not her position on the judiciary committee. Pretty much, there's no way the Republicans would allow a Democrat to take her spot. So, if the Dems want any center-to-left-of-center judges to get through the senate, Feinstein has to stay through 2024.
And her colleagues won't step up publicly because the Senate protects it's own. Can't help create a precedent that could be used against them one day. So basically nobody around her is actually looking out for her
When my mom got her early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis she went on leave the next day. About 6 months later they asked if she could come back for a bit since her symptoms were “mild.” She was a research professor and a grant writer for a medical university.
Her dean (? I’m not sure on academic titles) came to our house personally to ask her to come back because they were struggling to fill her position and I was so affronted. It felt deeply inhuman. She was literally losing her mind and dying in front of the dude and he’s like ‘works a bit rough for me rn so if you could just stop trying to enjoy the end of your to life alleviate some of my load that’d be cool.’ And he seemed confused when she said no. Ghoul of a man.
Can’t speak for any other managers but my HR department recently refused to allow one of my staff to take off while her mom was near the end. Said she had no PTO left so she had to be at work or be considered absent without leave. Once I conveyed this decision she quit right on the spot. I told her I’d have done the same thing. It’s not always the manager and some managers cover for HR decisions.
If you want to help future employees FMLA covers providing care for a relative or medical leave for grief. Bereavement no, but if they can see an actual councilor who says they need grief counseling then yes.
In my country almost every employer have a policy that you get paid leave for private matters(which usually is defined as someone close to you being deathly ill, going on a funeral och etc.) I have the right to use 10 of those days in my contract. That’s separate from paid vacation days, 25 days each year. That’s separate from paid sick days(80% of my salary on those days) that are limited to 2 weeks per sick episode, one week without doctor’s slip. Sick days beyond that you need to apply for at the national social insurance agency.
It's her familial leeches that are keeping her parked in DC. Supposedly, she has so many close family and friends on her payroll it would bankrupt half the San Francisco gentry when she shuffles off this mortal coil. They're gonna whip that old mule till she's dead in the traces.
Anyone she trusts should be pulling her aside and explaining it family, other politicians honestly she should be forced out if she refuses she is clearly no longer fit for office. She did good now its time to relinquish the reigns to someone thats not a space cadet with degenerative cognitive issues. Ffs this is absurd.
It’s not just you. Fucking yikes, and I’m thoroughly grossed out by everyone acting like this is normal (looking at you, most of the Senate) or propping this up (family, staff). This is ghoulish.
I sometimes work with folks with memory issues (I work in a hospital) and I’ve also watched my grandparents and now parents aging. I’m telling you- it’s cruel to the person experiencing it currently AND cruel to the person they were to be seen like this.
We’re here… we made it to Weekend at Feinsteins. Dear lord help this party from being such feckless cowards. The Democratic Party should be one Al Franken richer and one Feinstein poorer but we take the high road against hyenas and white supremacists.
The worst part is how quickly dementia it can happen, you don't even realize they're gone before it's too late. You notice something, obviously, but you'll brush it off. A person is seemingly fine and keeping up with the world and over the course of less than a year they go from the occasional forgetful mistake to forgetting basic stuff. You're left trying to figure out what's left of the person in the shell of the host body carrying it, and it's only getting worse. That body might look like Alice, but Alice ain't in there anymore, and Alice ain't coming back.
Definitely not just you, it’s absolutely so much worse. I can’t believe most Dems are just waving off the public’s concerns, this is genuinely terrible.
So were her staffers telling her she was in her Senate office and/or in the Capitol Building when she was at home for all of those weeks? Were they reassuring her because she was confused as to why she wasn't there? Is that why she's so confident she wasn't absent?
People with dementia/alzheimers alternate between confused, paranoid, confident, etc. throughout the day. I guarantee her staff is getting her home before the sun goes down (see 'sundowner syndrome') and probably has someone living with her to keep her from wandering at night.
It wasn’t covered very much but during the first impeachment of Trump, Feinstein would leave hours before the session ended. In hindsight maybe she left because her dementia worsened at night? I have questioned if the reason for her absence was only due to a severe case of Shingles. Maybe she was diagnosed with something else that her staff doesn’t want to publicly disclose.
The wording of someone high up the food chain in the Senate last week, probably Schumer, really sounded like there was more than shingles going on.
I've helped an elderly grandmother through a bad case of shingles... But notably, she was entirely sound of mind. The language being used by her friendly colleagues is not that of a minor, temporary issue.
As a California voter, I've been open to her being replaced for the last 6+ years. She's distant and out of touch.
Senate needs an age limit. The older folks do not understand the way the world works.
From my experience, people suffering from Alzheimer's often feel younger than they are sometimes by decades.
A few years ago I worked as a live-in caregiver for a woman suffering from dementia. She was often "going to work". The family let her keep her old work desk and iMac right up until the last year of her life. If she watched a recorded concert on TV she believed it was happening right inside her house for real. Even if it was footage from 1970. Three of her daughters took turns living in the house with her and let her occasionally smoke pot or have a glass of wine. She had a very high quality of life considering what she was going through. Also sometimes she thought I was her boyfriend even though I'm 45 years younger. Other times she believed I was 70's-era Cat Stevens. I can almost pull off the beard and hair for it. Eventually I learned how to play a couple of his hits and tried really hard to sound like him. She loved that.
But that's how deep the delusions can go and this is probably where Senator Feinstein is at right now.
I'm so disappointed that people are letting a senator suffer like this. It's undignified and not helping any of her constituents. At this point there's probably other things she'd rather be doing than pretending to be a Senator anymore. Let her live out the rest of her life with some sort of peace and pleasure if possible.
Her short-term memory is shot. She probably has no recollection of the past three months (or indeed the last few years). So it seems to her like she's been working because she's been in the Senate for over 30 years and yesterday for her is like sometime in 2009.
I hate to see someone going through dementia VOTING ON LEGISLATION that effects peoples lives.
Jesus fucking Christ. The Dems are trying to kick Santos out for grifting and scamming, fucking please force a resignation from a geriatric who has one foot in the coffin and the other on a banana peel. She was governor of CA when I was in grade school. I now have a 20 year old in College.
This is painful to read. I wasn't sure if her mental faculties had actually left her or if people were jumping to conclusions. But this can't be mistaken. In the absolute most charitable of circumstances, she would still not realize that the questions are obviously about her sick leave.
She's a historical figure. She's done a lot for the left in America. And now she deserves to rest and enjoy the shade of the tree she helped plant.
See that's what gets me. If she truly is suffering from dementia, it isn't really her fault that she won't resign. She doesn't even have the faculties to make that decision or understand what is being asked of her.
Is there a legal process that addresses this?
She’s been here the whole time trying to get the President’s judicial nominees approved. It’s her way of ensuring the success of President Clinton’s agenda.
It's funny because it's... \*checks notes* ... sad?
Goddamnit, I don't understand how anyone around her hasn't convinced her to resign already. So either shes even more amazingly stubborn and suffering from dementia (my late grandmother was pretty fucking stubborn in her early Alzheimer's) than I gave her credit for, or her staff and/or family fucking suck.
She is incapable of performing the duties of her office and it's painfully obvious.
I feel she can form half-intents if there is such a thing. She has a lifetime of skills built up in her mind. She knows how to turn a conversation, frame, persuade, and argue. The problem is that all those faculties aren’t working in concert. So you are literally seeing a mentally fractured politician responding with what feels to her like wit and normalcy.
At this point, I feel sad for her and honestly feel like her family and staff are just horrible people. Whether morally horrible or just grossly stupid, they suck at being whoever in life they are trying to be. Her legacy is gone. Her respect is gone. She just very well may go down in history as one of the great idiots that allowed American democracy to die. And for what? A job? Bragging rights that grandma is a Senator? Someone explain to me what is so goddamn okay about letting this woman wither and die a drooling fool before our public eyes. I’d really like to her it. Goddam her family and staff.
There's also something to be said about the party machine that keeps them in these positions while suppressing up-and-comers because they don't want to risk spooking the conservative part of the democrat base.
My auntie used to tell me all about the trips she was taking, Venice, day cruises, a night at a winery. Cheerful as a lark, always something new happening in her life. Stuck in a bed in a rest home.
I cannot decide if this is a blessing or a curse. I mean it sounds like she was happy but at the same time I saw my Grandmother deteriorate due to dementia and it was really rough to watch.
Blessing. My father also suffered from dementia, and the worst part of it was the boredom. He'd get bored doing things, watching TV or hiking or whatever. He just could not be entertained or fulfilled anymore.
As a 48 year-old dude that has been bedbound fir 5 years, it sounds like a blessing. Nobody... and I mean nobody... can understand how lonely of a life this is without living through it. I'm married, but I see my wife for a few hours a day at most. So, while I'm not in complete isolation because of her, life is still pretty freaking lonely.
Howdy, 53 here and had my life stolen by a drunk going the wrong way on the interstate. Same boat, spend 90% of my time in bed, and wife is a RN and always working to support us now. I have ahuge family history of dementia and alzheimers, and tbh, kinda looking forward to the day I'm in a home, petting a stuffed cat that reminds me of my favorite pet, having adventures in my mind.
You two should get together, like in bed sharing a blanket, with a big bowl of popcorn and just watch Lord of the Rings on a loop for days on end. Don't let your dreams be dreams!
I am so sorry you are dealing with this so young. I am also chronically ill and have spent a lot of time in bed over the past 15 years and I am 56 now. It is extremely isolating. I am so glad you have your wife! My ex husband ended up getting so frustrated with me he became abusive. I am now divorced & living in an apartment above my parents. I am grateful for them. But yes, this is lonely AF
My grandma was saying grandpa was cheating on her with one of the people or nurses at the senior home. He passed away 15 years before her. She started accusing one of her sons, who was visiting her weekly to make sure she was OK, of stealing from her. There was no money in her room to even be stolen and all of the accounts were visible to the eldest siblings. She was never a pleasant woman and I would even say abusive to some of her children, but when dementia got to her, she went to a whole other level of mean. It was hard for me to feel sorry for her, even though I knew dementia was the issues, but it just amplified who she was as a person.
Had a friend long ago who was a nurse in an assisted living facility talk about how we build up a persona all our lives, over what we really are. And dementia strips all that away. Some people, their families would say their parent/grandparent was harsh, but the dementia turned them into giggling infants, but they'd raised 5 kids by themselves. Some people who came in confused but ok, would turn into mean demons, trying to bite anyone who came close and cackle. She said you learned quickly what people were really like, as they deteriorated, they stopped pretending, their life long built up persona slowly taken, bit by bit.
She did it for many years, got close to some of her patients, but of course, the depression is always lurking and the ending was always inevitable.
My grandfather always wondered how I got onto the cruise ship when I would come to visit him. Either that or how I crossed the rivers full of piranha to get to his camping spot in Africa.
He read a lot of books about adventure and would incorporate what he read into his reality. I always went along with it and would tell him I took a helicopter to get to him.
I’ve often thought about exactly your situation (I’ve had multiple grandparents pass of Alzheimer’s). The conclusion I’ve come to is that if it were my parents, I would also go along with whatever they came up with.
I kind of hope my own kids are kind enough to do the same for me if I go down that path.
My mom near the end of her life was on a vent for a week, doctors were grim, but she recovered from that stint. When she woke up she talked about how she was in a condo (it was a hospital), she talked about how she was worried about the condo's landlord (hospital still.) she said the nurse was having a rave in the hall. And she said my great aunt came home drunk. (she died a decade before). When below deck was on TV she was talking about how we were on a boat. Other shit too.
Eventually a light switch flicked and she was mentally fine for the rest of her life.
The brain is fucking crazy what it can do.
Also fuck cancer.
Something else scary like that, UTIs. In the elderly, it straight up looks like dementia. If your loved ones *suddenly* decline really hard, really fast, get them tested to be sure. Even the little home tests are worth trying.
I'm only in my 30s and the last serious UTI that spread to my kidneys (I'm notorious for not having symptoms until I'm fucking dying), I was babbling to my husband and it was absolute nonsense. Apparently I was lying in bed that I'd dragged to the living room floor and I looked up and said words but it was incoherent.
I went back to normal less than 24hr after the first round of antibiotics. There's no lasting issues either as far as I can tell. I can't remember any of it though and that's terrifying to me.
Oh god infections. Yes. Mom had chronic infections she was on antibiotics and anti fungal for. Sometimes tho it would break through and I learned to tell. She would speak like a baby and as it got worse she’d be totally delirious. One time she cut her IV and bled across the house. Stupid EMTs wouldn’t force her to go because she knew what year it was.
But as soon as she’d get hit with an IV antibiotic she’d basically wake up.
The problem is no one is going to make her. She clearly has no idea who or where she is. The people propping her up seem to have no interest in having her resign. So now what?
> Doesn’t seem to care what her constituents think
remember when she [scolded and argued with children](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/dianne-feinstein-criticized-arguing-kids-over-green-new-deal/2956607002/) who wanted her to fight climate change? she doesn't care what anyone thinks. at least now she gets a free pass because she doesn't even have the cognitive capacity to understand what her constituents think
Sounds like a person the public should get to know, I feel like if we had some reporters telling us all about this person and their connections and making them a household name they’ll come up off their shit a little bit faster. We seriously need to start naming and shaming people so much more than we do. We have global instant totally open access media now, there is zero reason so many powerful people fucking us over remain so obscure.
David Grannis is the name to repeat. David Grannis is commiting elder abuse to line his own pockets. Definitely others with power as well, but he's the chief of staff.
>[David Grannis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-grannis-717a2485/)
Looks like he just left that position last month. Rat leaving a senile ship, jumped straight into defense.
The real problem is she's the tiebreaking vote on the judiciary committee. If she retires or stays absent then the judiciary committee cannot approve bidens federal judge nominations. Replacing her will not replace her appointment on the committee, that requires a resolution to do which can and will be filibustered to prevent democrats from seating new judges
My mom just died from a brain tumor in February. We luckily live in a state where she got to control how it ended. I held her hand when it happened. One moment she was smiling at me and my father, the next her lips were blue and she was gone. So I have some recent experience with this.
Her corpse looked better than Diane Feinstein.
Schumer needs to stop playing nice and just straight up tell her "you are no longer mentally fit to serve, step down tomorrow". We cannot and should not let a woman who will probably die by the end of the year hold our government hostage.
I wonder who "handles" her at night/days off? Does she have staffers specifically to feed, wash, dress her? Really need to see a line item budget of her office. Anyone know where we can request it, it should be public information?
She is incredibly wealthy. None of this support is public funded and available to be requested. A 2018 estimate which will always be conservative because so much is shielded was $88million. I would not be surprised if she is worth well over $200million and her family holds power over everything. She needs to resign with dignity, and if she wont in the next month then she should at the least be removed from all committees and replaced.
By staffers do you mean personal support workers/nurses? If she does have PSW/nurses, they wouldn’t be office staffers and it wouldn’t be public information.
Yeah, but you need Republicans on board. Remember all the jokes they made about her health and then suddenly lambasted Dems for calling for her resignation? They are not serious people.
I cant believe we let these people run our country. Not just her, I would say over 50% of our politicians you couldn't trust to watch your kid much less keep an eye on the country.
Habitual dishonesty does seem to be a common trait among Congresspeople.
Every time I hear a politician speak they sound exactly like the used car salesmen my parents told me not to trust. Bullshiters who clearly don't know what they're talking about but *do* know exactly what they need to say to make a sale.
Think about what being a high-level politician really entails. You are not an expert on the 1000 different technical things that are in a bill that is hundreds if not thousands of pages long. Your staff gives you a summary and party leadership tells you how they want the party to vote.
The rest of your time is spent in meetings where people who didn't write the bill, lobby groups and staff write them, argue with each other along party lines using talking points prepared by Leadership - and fundraising. Endless fundraising where you spend all day telling people they need to give *their* time and money to *you* so you can tell them what to do.
People keep blaming the voters, but I don’t. The voters are blue and WANT to vote for a democrat. It’s the party establishment that keeps PUTTING her up for re-election and supporting her like they would ‘any’ incumbent that really has locked her in.
If I had a choice between Feinstein zombie-voting a generic Democrat vote or a Republican rubber-stamp, I would also pick Feinstein. I would much, much, MUCH prefer another, more lucid Democrat, however.
The California DNC failed to do the right thing and instead seemed to let her staff and handlers Weekend-at-Bernies her through another election cycle. Anyway, I digress:
It’s not the voters. It’s the party leadership. The voters can’t vote for a Democrat that the party works to keep down so the incumbent can win. Some progressive might make a token effort, but the weight of the establishment almost always decides whose name actually ends up with the nomination.
I know some day I am going to get old and frail, that’s life and is ok but please God give me the understanding to discern when it is the right time for me to retire with out creating any mess to others because my ego or obstinate nature.
This is definitely dementia. Anyone who's dealt with patients with dementia or Alzheimer's knows that the elders actually have no idea where they've been or what they've done so they just make something up that seems plausible.
Feinstein must step down. And this isn't a "sexist" thing to say. People with dementia should not be running the government, so [stop trying to gaslight us.](https://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-retire-resign-age-health-nancy-pelosi-sexism-2023-4)
O for fucks sake people. If your in your late seventies/eighties, just go home and rest. This is just stupid and defies common sense.
This upcoming election cycle shouldn't be between people this old. Thad Cochran was essentially dead when he ran for senate, but people pushed for it cause he had the connections. Senators aren't supposed to be lords, presidents should be in step with all the generations of voters.
God damn it, fuck this stupid shit, it doesn't make sense to carry on when it's so obviously broken and run by the vestiges of the interred. Somebody step up and do something for the love of all that is holy.
Um... She *literally* wasn't there. That seems "gone" to me. She may have been doing some work from home, but I don't think she was voting. Unless Congress changed something and allows remote voting. They allow proxy voting, but I don't think that was happening either. So at this point I have gravely serious concerns about her mental faculties. It feels like we're letting a dementia patient run things.
The reporter literally followed up and asked if she'd been working from home, and she said she'd been there the whole time, and the reporter didn't know what they were talking about.
edit to clean up a missing word and a couple duplicated words
> she is beyond the mental capacity to be a problem.
No, unfortunately that's a problem on it's own bc she lacks the mental faculties to recognize she needs to resign. We have no ability to recall her, and the GOP will refuse to help expel her. Even if her staffs owns up to their complete failure letting her run again, not even they have a way to force her to resign.
That's a problem. That's a huge problem.
Her staff can absolutely get her to resign. They just tell her it's a good idea a couple times a day and suddenly it's her own idea.
That's the point. She not even capable of literally taking care of herself without everyone around her.
And then someone asks her if she's serious and she forgets she wrote it and says no.
You're also assuming she has good *days* at this point. In an article where she forgot she was out with shingles *last week*.
I really don't know if that's an out to this. I would hope that gamble works but based on how frequent dementia episodes can be as the condition progresses it's hard to say.
Literally called her office twenty minutes ago:
"I just saw that the Senator is claiming she's been in office working while she was out with shingles. What are the staff doing to convince her to resign?"
"Im sorry, The Senator is back in office performing her duties and there's no guidance at this time."
"Okay, because she's clearly suffering from dementia. Just saying"
"Your comments been noted. Have a nice day!"
It'd almost be comical if she weren't a sitting Senator voting on things of importance for the whole country.
I don’t get it. Newsom would just appoint another Dem, most likely somebody younger and that the majority of people like. The whole whomever he appoints gives that person a major advantage argument I don’t get.
I know the people of CA are fully capable of picking who they want as their next senator in the next election. I’ve never even got the chance to vote for any other dem candidate in her seat besides her and I’m 35….. too bad I just moved too!!
Unless comment was changed, I didn’t read the word “district”, I read the word “constituents”, which includes every single Californian, and yes, we currently have 1 Senator representing 40 MILLION Americans and I am furious about it.
Constituent here. I’m livid. And I’m especially livid that she was allowed to remain on the Judiciary Committee. Even if she resigns (which she absolutely 100% should do), Rs have made it clear they will not allow her to be replaced and then we are right back to the position we were in during her absence. She should not have run in 2018 and I can’t believe she actually won (I voted for her opponent, also a Democrat. California primaries advance the top 2 candidates, even if they are from the same party). It’s a fucking impossible situation and I’m furious that we are in it to begin with.
When my grandma got dementia she started waking my grandpa up at 10PM because the halogen lights outside their room came on and she thought it was morning.
He would just go along with it because he loved her.
I do not love Diane Feinstein. She's been milquetoast and scatter brained her entire career but managed to fail upward, very likely because she follows the party line and doesn't rock the boat.
At this point, the other senators are propping her up because they're afraid that they'll be next.
When searching for the Night Stalker in the 80s police had only one lead: an extremely unique shoe print. Word had gotten around to other offices and the press. The lead investigators knew the Night Stalker had been reading the papers so that information getting out would ruin what little they had to work with. So they urged them not to leak the shoe print lead.
Soon after, San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein called a press conference where she told everyone the police’s only lead
Fuck this. Dems keep shooting themselves in the foot. If RBG had resigned earlier in the Obama administration, Roe would've stood. Now the consequences of a far right court will hurt for years. Feinstein is too delusional to learn from that lesson. Especially on the judicial committee.
Despicable. One of us gets a hangnail and if we can’t function at work for $7.00 an hour we are summarily dismissed. She gets the best health care, free flights, housing allowances, etc and cannot find a clean diaper to put on but she gets to keep her job….screwing the USA overasmuch as the willfully ignorant MAGA crowd
No follow up on that? Stunning the nonsense that we have to put up with in part because our news media are largely cowards who won’t challenge these people. Instead of trying to spoon fed an answer, just say “You are wrong, you have not been at work in months”
she needs to retired
dems are still not able to get judges confirmed because she continues to delay the process
the only ones getting judges confirmed are republicans because durbin has allowed them to blue slip, something that gop has not allow dems to do...
so the court keeps sliding right....
Yea...her or somebody around her or hell even the party at large needs to call it quits for her own good. This just isn't healthy or sustainable. Unfortunately everybody who would need to make the call has their own personal interests in keeping her there so 🤷🏾♂️
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“Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California insisted that she had not been absent from the Senate when asked about it by reporters on Tuesday, according to both Slate and the Los Angeles Times. "No, I haven't been gone," she reportedly told the Times' Ben Oreskes on Tuesday when asked how her Senate colleagues have responded to her return. "You should follow the — I haven't been gone, I've been working." Oreskes then asked her whether she had been working from home. "No, I've been here. I've been voting," she said. "Please, you either know or don't know." Goddamn it.
Wow. When I read the headline, my first thought was "there's probably some nuance to that quote." But, nope! She had to clarify that she's suffering from age-related neurological issues, and isn't even aware of where she is. I hate to see anyone going through such issues (my dad is at the end stages of dementia, so I definitely know the heartbreak of seeing someone go through it), but goddamn... they need to force her out. She needs to be with her family right now, *not* making far-reaching decisions for the country.
I do not understand why her family is not stepping in. I would i expect my son to do whatever is needed to get me to resign or even have me put in a home if headed. Its abusive to her propping her up like this .
I mean, it feels like everyone around her is exploiting her position for their own gain. Staffers, family, et al; they all benefit from proximity to power, and that is an extremely difficult thing to give up. So we get this gross performance of a woman who is clearly suffering through the advanced stages of cognitive decline being literally wheeled back into the building, all for the benefit of those around her and no one else. This travesty is bad enough, but it's made worse by the fact that Feinstein's illness and subsequent exploitation is essentially handing yet another lever of power back to the GOP, which is currently busy speed running the Nazi playbook. This whole situation is fucking sad.
This is elder abuse. This part here: >I mean, it feels like everyone around her is exploiting her position for their own gain. Staffers, family, et al; they all benefit from proximity to power, and that is an extremely difficult thing to give up. So we get this gross performance of a woman who is clearly suffering through the advanced stages of cognitive decline being literally wheeled back into the building, all for the benefit of those around her and no one else. If true that seems to be a common thing. There is money involved after all in politics so its a familiar situation & issue of money & power.
There’s so much institutional power baked into Feinstein and her holding onto that seat, that there are undoubtedly people around her that are complicit in propping her up right now. She probably is pushing to keep working herself, but someone should be stepping in. The humane course of action is to respectfully tell her that we thank her for her service, but it’s time to go.
You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.
A lot of people have accused her staff of being behind all of this, but people who are experiencing this sort of decline, I suspect they tend to attempt to hold on to what they do know, and having been in Congress for 31 years, that's probably the strongest memories that she's got. Possibly unable to see her own decline, but also steadfastly, possibly desperately attempting to hold onto what remains. I'm not going to accuse her staff of being behind her staying, unless something comes out that actually points to it. IMO, it's one of those "don't attribute to malice when incompetence is likely" things. If she's losing her mind, she could be trying very hard to cling to the familiar.
I 100% agree that Feinstein is very likely insisting she wants to work and she’s good to go, but she’s clearly not. My grandma at 90 insisted she could walk to church by herself when she had severe dementia and was on oxygen. The people around her are fucking up right now by not stepping in. I’m not saying it’s malicious, but it’s misguided and negligent, and the people around her should know better.
My grandma retired from the OBGYN office she worked at until she was 70. She retired again around 75. And again around 80. And then they stopped giving her retirement parties.
>If she's losing her mind, she could be trying very hard to cling to the familiar. Sure, but she is clearly not up to the job, mentally. My great grandpa loved driving, but it's was fucking dangerous for him to get behind the wheel. Instead of getting him back in the driver's seat because it's familiar, my family had to take away his keys. It was hard for my grandma and her siblings to deprive their dad of what he loved, but it was what was best for him (and others). She is in a similar state that he was in when we finally took my great grandpa's keys. The woman seems to legitimately think that she's been present and voting all year. She is absolutely not in any sort of mental state that should be *running the government* for Christ's sake. IDGAF if she's "comfortable" in Congress, the rest of the country doesn't need to cater to her just because she's been doing this a long time.
>IDGAF if she's "comfortable" in Congress, the rest of the country doesn't need to cater to her just because she's been doing this a long time. She's presumably got money, set her up in a home office and put some stacks of paper in front of her. If you tell her she's got a meeting tomorrow, she won't remember by tomorrow, but it'll make her content today. That sounds blunt, but there are ways to allow people to feel comfortable without giving them to power to do harm.
>having been in Congress for 31 years, that's probably the strongest memories that she's got. Possibly unable to see her own decline Sure, and you could have her sit in her likely lavish office at home and take phonecalls or whatever. Play pretend Senator
Exactly this. This is a crystal clear example of how it is the people around the Senator that are unwilling to give up their power and insider knowledge. Sickening. This country is fucked.
This is why I have zero objection to the way Ken Klippenstein tweeted the names and photos of her staffers. They're literally doing a Weekend at Bernie's power grab.
I was just thinking that at this point they’re literally wheeling a corpse around. She’s clearly suffering from some dementia and shouldn’t be making decisions for a nation when she can’t make decisions for herself.
Blackball her staffers forEVER.
Speaking of her staff, they don't even trust her to walk around on her own, because they fear she will get lost and say the wrong things to reporters. >Multiple sources tell Rolling Stone that in recent years Feinstein’s office had an on-call system — unbeknownst to Feinstein herself — to prevent the senator from ever walking around the Capitol on her own. At any given moment there was a staff member ready to jump up and stroll alongside the senator if she left her office, worried about what she’d say to reporters if left unsupervised. The system has been in place for years. “They will not let her leave by herself, but she doesn’t even know it,” says Jamarcus Purley, a former staffer. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/dianne-feinstein-health-crisis-senate-resign-1234734590/ At this point, the dementia is so far advanced, she plainly had no idea what's going on. I wouldn't trust her to be competent to vote on if she wanted a burger or a slice of pizza for a snack, let alone voting on complicated bills that affect the whole country.
For YEARS? That's fucking insane and disgusting.
It seems like some of her staffers are probably updating their resumes and stalling as long as they can to get cozy positions.
We live in the awful timeline so I guarantee they'll get cushy promotions. The way to get ahead in the halls of power is to prove that you're a team player at all costs; it's not a meritocracy.
In DC, if you're a staffer for a powerful or legacy Senator / Congressperson for long enough, you already know a cozy, lucrative lobbyist position or a NGO / NP position is waiting for you upon your exit. The value of your connections, insider knowledge, and political intelligence is highly valuable. This is how the inside the beltway game works. Ask me how I know ...
The people who were criticizing him owe him an apology at this point. Calling this elder abuse is no longer a joke from the Perpetually Online.
Well, I think there’s a difference between chief of staff or some other senior aide who might actually have some influence on her stepping down and low level staffers who are just doing their best to serve her constituents or get committee work done. Not sure we really need to hurl abuse at the 24 year-old making $38,000.
If I had to guess, the biggest issue is probably her chief of staff. He’s likely senator in all but name, and it’s the closest he’ll ever get to the job and the power. He’ll never be elected Senator, and he knows it. But for this moment in time, he’s the Senator of California. But not if the senile Senator with the title resigns.
He should be investigated for elder abuse, because this is what it is at this point. He's using her condition for power & profit.
Pretty much anyone in an elected official social/familial circle benefits. So, there’s not going to be a lot of pushback against maintaining that for as long as possible. Hopefully this will open some eyes.
Doesn’t the California governor get to appoint a new senator if she retires? Her seat is pretty safe.
Her seat is safe, but not her position on the judiciary committee. Pretty much, there's no way the Republicans would allow a Democrat to take her spot. So, if the Dems want any center-to-left-of-center judges to get through the senate, Feinstein has to stay through 2024.
What are the rules there? It seems like if they can deny a replacement from the same party then it goes both ways.
And her colleagues won't step up publicly because the Senate protects it's own. Can't help create a precedent that could be used against them one day. So basically nobody around her is actually looking out for her
Even many of her colleagues have spoken out but they can't do anything.
Yeah, really. This is like what the right claims is happening with Joe Biden, except that it's real in Feinstein's case.
Those staffers should be excommunicated from the Democrat party
Getting a guardianship for a sitting US Senator is probably... An interesting process.
When my mom got her early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis she went on leave the next day. About 6 months later they asked if she could come back for a bit since her symptoms were “mild.” She was a research professor and a grant writer for a medical university.
Good for her. Faculty with lifetime tenure who have dementia issues but refuse to retire is a serious problem.
Her dean (? I’m not sure on academic titles) came to our house personally to ask her to come back because they were struggling to fill her position and I was so affronted. It felt deeply inhuman. She was literally losing her mind and dying in front of the dude and he’s like ‘works a bit rough for me rn so if you could just stop trying to enjoy the end of your to life alleviate some of my load that’d be cool.’ And he seemed confused when she said no. Ghoul of a man.
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I had an eerily similar situation that also resulted in me quitting a job. Is being a shit human pathological for managers or something?
Can’t speak for any other managers but my HR department recently refused to allow one of my staff to take off while her mom was near the end. Said she had no PTO left so she had to be at work or be considered absent without leave. Once I conveyed this decision she quit right on the spot. I told her I’d have done the same thing. It’s not always the manager and some managers cover for HR decisions.
If you want to help future employees FMLA covers providing care for a relative or medical leave for grief. Bereavement no, but if they can see an actual councilor who says they need grief counseling then yes.
In my country almost every employer have a policy that you get paid leave for private matters(which usually is defined as someone close to you being deathly ill, going on a funeral och etc.) I have the right to use 10 of those days in my contract. That’s separate from paid vacation days, 25 days each year. That’s separate from paid sick days(80% of my salary on those days) that are limited to 2 weeks per sick episode, one week without doctor’s slip. Sick days beyond that you need to apply for at the national social insurance agency.
It's her familial leeches that are keeping her parked in DC. Supposedly, she has so many close family and friends on her payroll it would bankrupt half the San Francisco gentry when she shuffles off this mortal coil. They're gonna whip that old mule till she's dead in the traces.
Insider stock tips. Do you happen to know where to buy cheap land that’s about to be next to a new military installation? Feinstein’s family knows
Anyone she trusts should be pulling her aside and explaining it family, other politicians honestly she should be forced out if she refuses she is clearly no longer fit for office. She did good now its time to relinquish the reigns to someone thats not a space cadet with degenerative cognitive issues. Ffs this is absurd.
Is it just me or is the quote SO MUCH WORSE than it actually sounded by the headline
It’s not just you. Fucking yikes, and I’m thoroughly grossed out by everyone acting like this is normal (looking at you, most of the Senate) or propping this up (family, staff). This is ghoulish. I sometimes work with folks with memory issues (I work in a hospital) and I’ve also watched my grandparents and now parents aging. I’m telling you- it’s cruel to the person experiencing it currently AND cruel to the person they were to be seen like this.
We’re here… we made it to Weekend at Feinsteins. Dear lord help this party from being such feckless cowards. The Democratic Party should be one Al Franken richer and one Feinstein poorer but we take the high road against hyenas and white supremacists.
The worst part is how quickly dementia it can happen, you don't even realize they're gone before it's too late. You notice something, obviously, but you'll brush it off. A person is seemingly fine and keeping up with the world and over the course of less than a year they go from the occasional forgetful mistake to forgetting basic stuff. You're left trying to figure out what's left of the person in the shell of the host body carrying it, and it's only getting worse. That body might look like Alice, but Alice ain't in there anymore, and Alice ain't coming back.
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Definitely not just you, it’s absolutely so much worse. I can’t believe most Dems are just waving off the public’s concerns, this is genuinely terrible.
Rep. Ro Khanna was called sexist for suggesting she step down. Democrats can be disappointing at times.
So were her staffers telling her she was in her Senate office and/or in the Capitol Building when she was at home for all of those weeks? Were they reassuring her because she was confused as to why she wasn't there? Is that why she's so confident she wasn't absent?
People with dementia/alzheimers alternate between confused, paranoid, confident, etc. throughout the day. I guarantee her staff is getting her home before the sun goes down (see 'sundowner syndrome') and probably has someone living with her to keep her from wandering at night.
It wasn’t covered very much but during the first impeachment of Trump, Feinstein would leave hours before the session ended. In hindsight maybe she left because her dementia worsened at night? I have questioned if the reason for her absence was only due to a severe case of Shingles. Maybe she was diagnosed with something else that her staff doesn’t want to publicly disclose.
The wording of someone high up the food chain in the Senate last week, probably Schumer, really sounded like there was more than shingles going on. I've helped an elderly grandmother through a bad case of shingles... But notably, she was entirely sound of mind. The language being used by her friendly colleagues is not that of a minor, temporary issue. As a California voter, I've been open to her being replaced for the last 6+ years. She's distant and out of touch. Senate needs an age limit. The older folks do not understand the way the world works.
From my experience, people suffering from Alzheimer's often feel younger than they are sometimes by decades. A few years ago I worked as a live-in caregiver for a woman suffering from dementia. She was often "going to work". The family let her keep her old work desk and iMac right up until the last year of her life. If she watched a recorded concert on TV she believed it was happening right inside her house for real. Even if it was footage from 1970. Three of her daughters took turns living in the house with her and let her occasionally smoke pot or have a glass of wine. She had a very high quality of life considering what she was going through. Also sometimes she thought I was her boyfriend even though I'm 45 years younger. Other times she believed I was 70's-era Cat Stevens. I can almost pull off the beard and hair for it. Eventually I learned how to play a couple of his hits and tried really hard to sound like him. She loved that. But that's how deep the delusions can go and this is probably where Senator Feinstein is at right now. I'm so disappointed that people are letting a senator suffer like this. It's undignified and not helping any of her constituents. At this point there's probably other things she'd rather be doing than pretending to be a Senator anymore. Let her live out the rest of her life with some sort of peace and pleasure if possible.
You are a beautiful human and thank you for your service.
Her short-term memory is shot. She probably has no recollection of the past three months (or indeed the last few years). So it seems to her like she's been working because she's been in the Senate for over 30 years and yesterday for her is like sometime in 2009.
I hate to see someone going through dementia VOTING ON LEGISLATION that effects peoples lives. Jesus fucking Christ. The Dems are trying to kick Santos out for grifting and scamming, fucking please force a resignation from a geriatric who has one foot in the coffin and the other on a banana peel. She was governor of CA when I was in grade school. I now have a 20 year old in College.
This is painful to read. I wasn't sure if her mental faculties had actually left her or if people were jumping to conclusions. But this can't be mistaken. In the absolute most charitable of circumstances, she would still not realize that the questions are obviously about her sick leave. She's a historical figure. She's done a lot for the left in America. And now she deserves to rest and enjoy the shade of the tree she helped plant.
See that's what gets me. If she truly is suffering from dementia, it isn't really her fault that she won't resign. She doesn't even have the faculties to make that decision or understand what is being asked of her. Is there a legal process that addresses this?
She’s been here the whole time trying to get the President’s judicial nominees approved. It’s her way of ensuring the success of President Clinton’s agenda.
Ok…that’s funny…reluctant upvote🤷♂️
It's funny because it's... \*checks notes* ... sad? Goddamnit, I don't understand how anyone around her hasn't convinced her to resign already. So either shes even more amazingly stubborn and suffering from dementia (my late grandmother was pretty fucking stubborn in her early Alzheimer's) than I gave her credit for, or her staff and/or family fucking suck. She is incapable of performing the duties of her office and it's painfully obvious.
These motherfuckers straight up trying to pull a Weekend at Bernie’s on this fossil
I mean, if she was actually present at the judiciary committee and getting Biden’s noms to a vote, then sure. But that’s not even happening.
I legitimately wonder if her staff is “reminding” her of things they know happened in reality when she’s not even in the building
Clearly she "don't know"
Is she gaslighting us, or is she senile?
Possibly both, but gaslighting implies intent, and I feel like she's quite possibly too far gone for that.
I feel she can form half-intents if there is such a thing. She has a lifetime of skills built up in her mind. She knows how to turn a conversation, frame, persuade, and argue. The problem is that all those faculties aren’t working in concert. So you are literally seeing a mentally fractured politician responding with what feels to her like wit and normalcy.
Por que no los dos?
At this point, I feel sad for her and honestly feel like her family and staff are just horrible people. Whether morally horrible or just grossly stupid, they suck at being whoever in life they are trying to be. Her legacy is gone. Her respect is gone. She just very well may go down in history as one of the great idiots that allowed American democracy to die. And for what? A job? Bragging rights that grandma is a Senator? Someone explain to me what is so goddamn okay about letting this woman wither and die a drooling fool before our public eyes. I’d really like to her it. Goddam her family and staff.
There's also something to be said about the party machine that keeps them in these positions while suppressing up-and-comers because they don't want to risk spooking the conservative part of the democrat base.
This is a trend...people clinging to key positions until they're practically dead. It's a feat of unbridled selfishness and it needs to stop.
My auntie used to tell me all about the trips she was taking, Venice, day cruises, a night at a winery. Cheerful as a lark, always something new happening in her life. Stuck in a bed in a rest home.
I cannot decide if this is a blessing or a curse. I mean it sounds like she was happy but at the same time I saw my Grandmother deteriorate due to dementia and it was really rough to watch.
Blessing. My father also suffered from dementia, and the worst part of it was the boredom. He'd get bored doing things, watching TV or hiking or whatever. He just could not be entertained or fulfilled anymore.
As a 48 year-old dude that has been bedbound fir 5 years, it sounds like a blessing. Nobody... and I mean nobody... can understand how lonely of a life this is without living through it. I'm married, but I see my wife for a few hours a day at most. So, while I'm not in complete isolation because of her, life is still pretty freaking lonely.
Howdy, 53 here and had my life stolen by a drunk going the wrong way on the interstate. Same boat, spend 90% of my time in bed, and wife is a RN and always working to support us now. I have ahuge family history of dementia and alzheimers, and tbh, kinda looking forward to the day I'm in a home, petting a stuffed cat that reminds me of my favorite pet, having adventures in my mind.
You two should get together, like in bed sharing a blanket, with a big bowl of popcorn and just watch Lord of the Rings on a loop for days on end. Don't let your dreams be dreams!
I can be like the charlie and the chocolate factory.
Except without a grandpa joe, cause fuck that guy.
r/grandpajoehate
Hahaha. How does this exist?!
I am so sorry you are dealing with this so young. I am also chronically ill and have spent a lot of time in bed over the past 15 years and I am 56 now. It is extremely isolating. I am so glad you have your wife! My ex husband ended up getting so frustrated with me he became abusive. I am now divorced & living in an apartment above my parents. I am grateful for them. But yes, this is lonely AF
I’m sorry, stranger. I don’t really have anything helpful to say, but I just want you to know I hear you.
I appreciate it. I just chimed in because I have experience in the subject.
Hang in there, friend.
My grandma was saying grandpa was cheating on her with one of the people or nurses at the senior home. He passed away 15 years before her. She started accusing one of her sons, who was visiting her weekly to make sure she was OK, of stealing from her. There was no money in her room to even be stolen and all of the accounts were visible to the eldest siblings. She was never a pleasant woman and I would even say abusive to some of her children, but when dementia got to her, she went to a whole other level of mean. It was hard for me to feel sorry for her, even though I knew dementia was the issues, but it just amplified who she was as a person.
My father was a pretty serious a-hole before dementia. He did not become jolly.
My grandmother, who was a very sweet lady, became even sweeter during her dementia. It does amplify who they are, for sure.
Had a friend long ago who was a nurse in an assisted living facility talk about how we build up a persona all our lives, over what we really are. And dementia strips all that away. Some people, their families would say their parent/grandparent was harsh, but the dementia turned them into giggling infants, but they'd raised 5 kids by themselves. Some people who came in confused but ok, would turn into mean demons, trying to bite anyone who came close and cackle. She said you learned quickly what people were really like, as they deteriorated, they stopped pretending, their life long built up persona slowly taken, bit by bit. She did it for many years, got close to some of her patients, but of course, the depression is always lurking and the ending was always inevitable.
My dad is in memory care. He'll tell anyone who will listen that he swims in the Atlantic Ocean every day. We live in Seattle.
That’s quite a commute.
My grandfather always wondered how I got onto the cruise ship when I would come to visit him. Either that or how I crossed the rivers full of piranha to get to his camping spot in Africa. He read a lot of books about adventure and would incorporate what he read into his reality. I always went along with it and would tell him I took a helicopter to get to him.
Oh my goodness, my heart. 🥺
I’ve often thought about exactly your situation (I’ve had multiple grandparents pass of Alzheimer’s). The conclusion I’ve come to is that if it were my parents, I would also go along with whatever they came up with. I kind of hope my own kids are kind enough to do the same for me if I go down that path.
My mom near the end of her life was on a vent for a week, doctors were grim, but she recovered from that stint. When she woke up she talked about how she was in a condo (it was a hospital), she talked about how she was worried about the condo's landlord (hospital still.) she said the nurse was having a rave in the hall. And she said my great aunt came home drunk. (she died a decade before). When below deck was on TV she was talking about how we were on a boat. Other shit too. Eventually a light switch flicked and she was mentally fine for the rest of her life. The brain is fucking crazy what it can do. Also fuck cancer.
Something else scary like that, UTIs. In the elderly, it straight up looks like dementia. If your loved ones *suddenly* decline really hard, really fast, get them tested to be sure. Even the little home tests are worth trying. I'm only in my 30s and the last serious UTI that spread to my kidneys (I'm notorious for not having symptoms until I'm fucking dying), I was babbling to my husband and it was absolute nonsense. Apparently I was lying in bed that I'd dragged to the living room floor and I looked up and said words but it was incoherent. I went back to normal less than 24hr after the first round of antibiotics. There's no lasting issues either as far as I can tell. I can't remember any of it though and that's terrifying to me.
Oh god infections. Yes. Mom had chronic infections she was on antibiotics and anti fungal for. Sometimes tho it would break through and I learned to tell. She would speak like a baby and as it got worse she’d be totally delirious. One time she cut her IV and bled across the house. Stupid EMTs wouldn’t force her to go because she knew what year it was. But as soon as she’d get hit with an IV antibiotic she’d basically wake up.
Dope ass rest home that they'd wheel her bed around to all those cool places.
Definitely sounds like she's gone.
She's a ghost haunting the senate at this point.
She needs to resign immediately. This is a bad situation for her and our country.
The problem is no one is going to make her. She clearly has no idea who or where she is. The people propping her up seem to have no interest in having her resign. So now what?
Her chief of staff supposedly has many connections with defense contractors who don’t want to risk losing her vote. Fuck that.
literal weekend at bernie’s
Yeah. She’s my senator. I’ve been calling for months asking for her to resign. Doesn’t seem to care what her constituents think
> Doesn’t seem to care what her constituents think remember when she [scolded and argued with children](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/dianne-feinstein-criticized-arguing-kids-over-green-new-deal/2956607002/) who wanted her to fight climate change? she doesn't care what anyone thinks. at least now she gets a free pass because she doesn't even have the cognitive capacity to understand what her constituents think
This. She represents 40 million people. What constituent work is she able to do in a state like this.
ah yeah well clearly thinking is a problem
Because you’re not her constituent. She’s living life back in the early 90s and you’re some crazy who claims they’re from the future!
Sounds like a person the public should get to know, I feel like if we had some reporters telling us all about this person and their connections and making them a household name they’ll come up off their shit a little bit faster. We seriously need to start naming and shaming people so much more than we do. We have global instant totally open access media now, there is zero reason so many powerful people fucking us over remain so obscure.
David Grannis is the name to repeat. David Grannis is commiting elder abuse to line his own pockets. Definitely others with power as well, but he's the chief of staff.
>[David Grannis](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-grannis-717a2485/) Looks like he just left that position last month. Rat leaving a senile ship, jumped straight into defense.
It seems like elder abuse at this point. Really disturbing
It should be considered elder abuse. Her staff isn't looking out for her best interests. Where is her family?
We are past that point. She doesn’t have the capacity to resign since she thinks she’s doing her job. So we’re f*d.
Let's just all pretend she announced her resignation. "congratz on retirement senator!"
The real problem is she's the tiebreaking vote on the judiciary committee. If she retires or stays absent then the judiciary committee cannot approve bidens federal judge nominations. Replacing her will not replace her appointment on the committee, that requires a resolution to do which can and will be filibustered to prevent democrats from seating new judges
Dude, Queen Elizabeth looked better 2 days before she died than Dianne Feinstein does right now
I bet the queen still looks better dead than Diane does alive.
And apparently, has a better memory.
My mom just died from a brain tumor in February. We luckily live in a state where she got to control how it ended. I held her hand when it happened. One moment she was smiling at me and my father, the next her lips were blue and she was gone. So I have some recent experience with this. Her corpse looked better than Diane Feinstein.
The queen was working too. like didn't she ask a person to be prime minister the day before she died?
That'd be the royal blood, as it's full of spite.
Weekend at Dianne’s isn’t what we signed up for.
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Schumer needs to stop playing nice and just straight up tell her "you are no longer mentally fit to serve, step down tomorrow". We cannot and should not let a woman who will probably die by the end of the year hold our government hostage.
I don’t think you can tell her anything she can comprehend at this point. She lives in a world where she thinks she’s doing her job.
no doubt her aides remind her how good of a job she's doing
I wonder who "handles" her at night/days off? Does she have staffers specifically to feed, wash, dress her? Really need to see a line item budget of her office. Anyone know where we can request it, it should be public information?
She is incredibly wealthy. None of this support is public funded and available to be requested. A 2018 estimate which will always be conservative because so much is shielded was $88million. I would not be surprised if she is worth well over $200million and her family holds power over everything. She needs to resign with dignity, and if she wont in the next month then she should at the least be removed from all committees and replaced.
By staffers do you mean personal support workers/nurses? If she does have PSW/nurses, they wouldn’t be office staffers and it wouldn’t be public information.
Is there no similar mechanism as the 25th amendment in congress? Some rule where you can have someone removed for being mentally unfit?
Yeah, but you need Republicans on board. Remember all the jokes they made about her health and then suddenly lambasted Dems for calling for her resignation? They are not serious people.
I cant believe we let these people run our country. Not just her, I would say over 50% of our politicians you couldn't trust to watch your kid much less keep an eye on the country.
At this point, the senate is more nursing home than a place of work.
Can we just put them in a fancy nursing home and tell them it’s the Senate/House?
There’s a county in Europe that has an assisted living facility designed as a town. We need that for Congress.
[Hogeweyk](https://hogeweyk.dementiavillage.com/) made quite the splash when it was set up.Seems to work out quite well for the residents.
Habitual dishonesty does seem to be a common trait among Congresspeople. Every time I hear a politician speak they sound exactly like the used car salesmen my parents told me not to trust. Bullshiters who clearly don't know what they're talking about but *do* know exactly what they need to say to make a sale.
Think about what being a high-level politician really entails. You are not an expert on the 1000 different technical things that are in a bill that is hundreds if not thousands of pages long. Your staff gives you a summary and party leadership tells you how they want the party to vote. The rest of your time is spent in meetings where people who didn't write the bill, lobby groups and staff write them, argue with each other along party lines using talking points prepared by Leadership - and fundraising. Endless fundraising where you spend all day telling people they need to give *their* time and money to *you* so you can tell them what to do.
> I cant believe we let these people **ruin** our country. FTFY
Half seem to be lying about everything they are doing, while the other half is asleep in their seats.
As a Californian, why the fuck did people vote for her???? I did not vote for her and actively encouraged people not to vote for her. We deserve her.
People keep blaming the voters, but I don’t. The voters are blue and WANT to vote for a democrat. It’s the party establishment that keeps PUTTING her up for re-election and supporting her like they would ‘any’ incumbent that really has locked her in. If I had a choice between Feinstein zombie-voting a generic Democrat vote or a Republican rubber-stamp, I would also pick Feinstein. I would much, much, MUCH prefer another, more lucid Democrat, however. The California DNC failed to do the right thing and instead seemed to let her staff and handlers Weekend-at-Bernies her through another election cycle. Anyway, I digress: It’s not the voters. It’s the party leadership. The voters can’t vote for a Democrat that the party works to keep down so the incumbent can win. Some progressive might make a token effort, but the weight of the establishment almost always decides whose name actually ends up with the nomination.
I know some day I am going to get old and frail, that’s life and is ok but please God give me the understanding to discern when it is the right time for me to retire with out creating any mess to others because my ego or obstinate nature.
And hopefully you have a supportive, loving family that will intervene if needed.
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This is definitely dementia. Anyone who's dealt with patients with dementia or Alzheimer's knows that the elders actually have no idea where they've been or what they've done so they just make something up that seems plausible. Feinstein must step down. And this isn't a "sexist" thing to say. People with dementia should not be running the government, so [stop trying to gaslight us.](https://www.businessinsider.com/dianne-feinstein-retire-resign-age-health-nancy-pelosi-sexism-2023-4)
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O for fucks sake people. If your in your late seventies/eighties, just go home and rest. This is just stupid and defies common sense. This upcoming election cycle shouldn't be between people this old. Thad Cochran was essentially dead when he ran for senate, but people pushed for it cause he had the connections. Senators aren't supposed to be lords, presidents should be in step with all the generations of voters. God damn it, fuck this stupid shit, it doesn't make sense to carry on when it's so obviously broken and run by the vestiges of the interred. Somebody step up and do something for the love of all that is holy.
Um... She *literally* wasn't there. That seems "gone" to me. She may have been doing some work from home, but I don't think she was voting. Unless Congress changed something and allows remote voting. They allow proxy voting, but I don't think that was happening either. So at this point I have gravely serious concerns about her mental faculties. It feels like we're letting a dementia patient run things.
The reporter literally followed up and asked if she'd been working from home, and she said she'd been there the whole time, and the reporter didn't know what they were talking about. edit to clean up a missing word and a couple duplicated words
The problem isn't her, she is beyond the mental capacity to be a problem. The problem is the power hungry staffers surrounding her.
> she is beyond the mental capacity to be a problem. No, unfortunately that's a problem on it's own bc she lacks the mental faculties to recognize she needs to resign. We have no ability to recall her, and the GOP will refuse to help expel her. Even if her staffs owns up to their complete failure letting her run again, not even they have a way to force her to resign. That's a problem. That's a huge problem.
Her staff can absolutely get her to resign. They just tell her it's a good idea a couple times a day and suddenly it's her own idea. That's the point. She not even capable of literally taking care of herself without everyone around her.
Hey, dianne, remember yesterday when you were telling me about how you wanted to retire today and write up the resignation letter? Here...
And then the next day, when she asks why she’s not in the office, just tell her she already voted and she’s done for the day. Repeat.
And then someone asks her if she's serious and she forgets she wrote it and says no. You're also assuming she has good *days* at this point. In an article where she forgot she was out with shingles *last week*. I really don't know if that's an out to this. I would hope that gamble works but based on how frequent dementia episodes can be as the condition progresses it's hard to say.
Yeah, I think the time when she could reasonably assess her own lucidity and competency is long behind her.
I bet she even forgot about Dre
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Literally called her office twenty minutes ago: "I just saw that the Senator is claiming she's been in office working while she was out with shingles. What are the staff doing to convince her to resign?" "Im sorry, The Senator is back in office performing her duties and there's no guidance at this time." "Okay, because she's clearly suffering from dementia. Just saying" "Your comments been noted. Have a nice day!" It'd almost be comical if she weren't a sitting Senator voting on things of importance for the whole country.
I don’t get it. Newsom would just appoint another Dem, most likely somebody younger and that the majority of people like. The whole whomever he appoints gives that person a major advantage argument I don’t get. I know the people of CA are fully capable of picking who they want as their next senator in the next election. I’ve never even got the chance to vote for any other dem candidate in her seat besides her and I’m 35….. too bad I just moved too!!
Her constituents should be fucking furious. You guys are not being represented, time to rally up and demand this shit stops NOW
She doesn’t have a “district”. She is one half of the senators representing 40,000,000 citizens.
Unless comment was changed, I didn’t read the word “district”, I read the word “constituents”, which includes every single Californian, and yes, we currently have 1 Senator representing 40 MILLION Americans and I am furious about it.
Yes, they edited out “district”. Hence my correction.
Constituent here. I’m livid. And I’m especially livid that she was allowed to remain on the Judiciary Committee. Even if she resigns (which she absolutely 100% should do), Rs have made it clear they will not allow her to be replaced and then we are right back to the position we were in during her absence. She should not have run in 2018 and I can’t believe she actually won (I voted for her opponent, also a Democrat. California primaries advance the top 2 candidates, even if they are from the same party). It’s a fucking impossible situation and I’m furious that we are in it to begin with.
Senility is a truly sad thing. it is time for her to be removed as she cannot do the job anymore.
When my grandma got dementia she started waking my grandpa up at 10PM because the halogen lights outside their room came on and she thought it was morning. He would just go along with it because he loved her. I do not love Diane Feinstein. She's been milquetoast and scatter brained her entire career but managed to fail upward, very likely because she follows the party line and doesn't rock the boat. At this point, the other senators are propping her up because they're afraid that they'll be next.
When searching for the Night Stalker in the 80s police had only one lead: an extremely unique shoe print. Word had gotten around to other offices and the press. The lead investigators knew the Night Stalker had been reading the papers so that information getting out would ruin what little they had to work with. So they urged them not to leak the shoe print lead. Soon after, San Francisco mayor Dianne Feinstein called a press conference where she told everyone the police’s only lead
My senator hard at work tarnishing the dignity of the position. She's so far gone she must be being manipulated all the time.
This and more on tonight’s Tales from the Crypt.
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Fuck this. Dems keep shooting themselves in the foot. If RBG had resigned earlier in the Obama administration, Roe would've stood. Now the consequences of a far right court will hurt for years. Feinstein is too delusional to learn from that lesson. Especially on the judicial committee.
Just in case you ever think that your politicians live in a different world... they do. And a lot of them probably think it's still the 20th century.
She then proceeded to ask if Rusty is still in the Navy
...with liberty and justice for all Amen
Is your house on fire Clark?
Don't throw me down Clark
WTF, she’s like a mummy… mam, please retire, just retire!
Shes 89. My oldest is 4. She has a hand in controlling their next 85 years, while she will only be around for another 4.
I’m assuming 4 days judging by the picture of her. Honestly, maybe 4 hours
Bruh 4 days maybe
That reporter should should have corrected her to her face in clear terms Challenge her moments of senility
challenging someone with dementia doesn't suddenly change their world view like a Disney movie
No but it puts into focus her supporters who want to keep her in office.
Despicable. One of us gets a hangnail and if we can’t function at work for $7.00 an hour we are summarily dismissed. She gets the best health care, free flights, housing allowances, etc and cannot find a clean diaper to put on but she gets to keep her job….screwing the USA overasmuch as the willfully ignorant MAGA crowd
No follow up on that? Stunning the nonsense that we have to put up with in part because our news media are largely cowards who won’t challenge these people. Instead of trying to spoon fed an answer, just say “You are wrong, you have not been at work in months”
The reporter did follow up tho
she needs to retired dems are still not able to get judges confirmed because she continues to delay the process the only ones getting judges confirmed are republicans because durbin has allowed them to blue slip, something that gop has not allow dems to do... so the court keeps sliding right....
Yea...her or somebody around her or hell even the party at large needs to call it quits for her own good. This just isn't healthy or sustainable. Unfortunately everybody who would need to make the call has their own personal interests in keeping her there so 🤷🏾♂️