The "Alzheimer's stare" - readily seen in this image, as pointed out to me by my psychologist niece. She says the chances of Dotard scoring 30/ 30 on a Montreal cognitive assessment test are about the same as a poker player getting four royal flushes in a row.
It appears that Donnie J. Dotard may well be a "stable genius" after all, at least according to the claims of physician Ronny L. Jackson, who gave him the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test "at the president's own insistence".. See e.g. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42717163
Not only that, but the Dotard evidently put all of those questioning his mental fitness for office to shame by notching a 30 out of 30. In other words a perfect score.
And if you believe that codswallop you are sure to believe any other bullshit Trump or his minders and minions tell you, including that he also just passed the Mensa membership qualification test. When I discussed this with my psychologist niece Shayl, her response was twofold: a) "Boy, Trump must really have something on Dr. Ronny Jackson to have him cooperate in this medical fraud." and b) "The probability of this guy, who certainly displays Alzheimer's symptoms, scoring that high are about like a poker player getting four royal flushes in a row."
Why would Shayl exhibit such doubt at the doc's performance? See e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSqH0fQ2SrQ
As she put it: "It's all about body language and facial expression. The guy is clearly under stress almost like a victim of Stockholm syndrome whose captors are watching his every move. His speech is also hurried, nervous. He also gives himself away by doing what poor liars always do - over embellishing - saying Trump "is always sharp" and "could live to be 200 years old!"
Watching the whole performance several times (not just the truncated clip above) I believe her and also for my own reasons. I had to take a similar cognitive test back in 2012. (In my test I had to name as many animals beginning with the letter 'I' as possible in one minute.) This was before receiving a spinal (epidural) in preparation for my high dose radiation (brachytherapy) treatment at UCSF, for prostate cancer. The test is done before the administration of the spinal to determine if there is any cognitive regression following the anesthesia wearing off. (It can sometimes cause significant cognitive impairment in a number of patients who are already at risk.), I scored a 25 out of 30, not bad but not perfect. Not like Trump's 100% and hey, I believe I have a language command 100 times greater and a vocabulary to match.
But, of course, if one uses Google one quickly learns a high score in the Montreal Assessment doesn't negate cognitive deficiency nor does a low score (usually below 25) mean one is necessarily cognitively challenged. Thus, one must actually take into consideration an array of ancillary factors, including one's day to day communication skills, level of comprehension, verbal coherence and capacity for sequential thought. None of which Dotard demonstrates to any degree.
For proof you just have to go through his documented "word salads" such as revealed by Alex Leo of the Daily Beast. He once transcribed one sentence Trump delivered at a campaign stop in South Carolina last year, manifesting as a series of dead ends, unfinished thoughts and odd ramblings:
"Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you're a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it's true!—but when you're a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that's why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my, like, credentials all the time, because we're a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it's not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what's going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it's four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger, fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven't figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so you know, it's gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us."You read that then tell me with a straight face this guy could suddenly score 30 out of 30 on a cognitive assessment test - and one that HE himself asked for!
And if Dr. Ronny Jackson expects me to believe his claim, then I say produce the video recording of Trump taking this test so I can actually see and hear his responses, and time them. (I also want to see a seconds hand clock running in the background to ensure there is no hocus pocus.) Jackson, like other obvious Trump protectors (e.g. Kirstjen Nielsen in her testimony yesterday, insisting that she heard no "shit hole' comment) has to know most of us can tell when someone is running interference for this maggot and when s/he isn't. The very fact Trump could insist Jackson - before his press appearance "Tell them everything" - informs me something is rotten to the foundation, given this is coming from a pathological liar.
The fact Jackson would then embellish the health of this dyspeptic cheese burger gobbler by asserting he "could live to be two hundred" tells me he is lying too, right through his teeth. Shayl is one hundred percent certain he is lying as she is one hundred percent certain Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen perjured herself before the Senate committee yesterday. But as former Obama press secretary Josh Earnest pointed out last night on 'Last Word' the latter's lies are for more serious because:
"This is somebody whose word and integrity matters. And whose word and integrity has life or death consequences. When you have a person who holds that job and is willing to say things that are obviously not true about something so trivial it inserts a seed of doubt whenever we may hear her talk about something important.
Bingo! That same applies to Jackson, though to be sure his lies about Trump's health aren't as critical - UNLESS - he is covering up for Dotard's cognitive issues.
Why is the Dotard all of a sudden totally honest and forthcoming? Well, because the goddamned test itself was either bogus or cribbed. In either case no sensible person with more than air between the ears would believe it no matter who it's coming from. It simply doesn't comport with the constellation of evidence that show he is in a phase of severe cognitive decline, including Trump not even recognizing people - known friends - at meetings. As Shayl put it, one wonders what he has on Rear Adm. Jackson to coerce him to cooperate in this medical PR fraud. What does he have on Kirstjen Nielsen that she'd flat out lie over a trivial matter like Trump's words at a meeting?
Lawrence O'Donnell last night imputed further health lies to Jackson, in particular Trump not being "obese". Jackson claimed Trump's height to be 6' 3" but O'Donnell showed a comparative image of Jeb Bush - who is actually that height - along side Trump, who is clearly shorter. As Lawrence put it "if Trump was even one inch shorter his BMI would show him to be obese". He noted also the staff was amazed (as reported in Wolff's book) as "he couldn't even button his suit coat." Point being if Jackson would lie about these minor items there's little doubt he'd also lie about Trump's cognitive fitness for office. In like manner if Nielsen lied about Trump's scatological comment I believe she'd also lie about a security threat, e.g. tossing up a red code warning when there is none at all. Why should I believe her if she lied under oath? Jackson wasn't under oath, but was in front of the press corps. Why the hell should I believe him? Because he's an M.D.? Give me a break!
Hell, don't take my word for these cognitive claims, or simply concur with my suspicions that this cognitive test was a fraud, a lie.Study the clip below,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3CFwkoqxIs
in which David Pakman shows how typical Trump bluster could actually be a sign of progressive dementia. Think this is an exaggeration or hype? Try to recall when Trump forgot which country he’d just bombed last spring. (He said "Iraq", it was Syria.) Also how it just slipped his mind to sign a pair of executive orders during an event created for that explicit purpose.
But this leads me to ask (like Shayl) what Trump also has on those Republican Senators (e.g. Tom Cotton, David Perdue) as well as Kristjen Nielsen, to cooperate in his web of lies. Has he threatened them with visits from the Russian mob? The same mob - along with Felix Sater- who have bankrolled his rise to infamy?
Michael Smerconiish, in a recent Denver Post op-ed ('Speculation About Donald Trump's Mental Health Is Offensive') e.g.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/12/speculation-about-trumps-mental-health-is-offensive/
wrote:
"Recently an increasing number feel emboldened to discuss the matter because Michael Wolff’s instant bestseller, “Fire and Fury,” quotes Steve Bannon as saying that Trump has “lost his stuff” and claims that every single person around the president questions his fitness.
Wolff’s words follow the recent release of a book by 27 mental health professionals who expressed their concerns about the president, as evidenced by its title, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump....Even if Trump’s behavior is objectionable — and it often is — none of it is sufficient reason to change what has been the 40-year practice of not armchair-diagnosing a president’s mental state."
The problem here is that Smerconish, while well meaning, is unable to distinguish between "objectionable" behavior and that which is cognitively deficient. Let's concede the problem is that Trump displays both. For example, his praise of some of the Nazis marching in Charlottesville as "some very fine people" was objectionable. So was his recent comment: "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”
On the other hand, repeating himself every ten minutes as documented in Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury' book, is a sign of serious cognitive decline. I beheld the same repetition in my own mother who had Alzheimer's (and died of it) as well as Janice's cousin Desmond:
By 2010, he was repeating stories he'd already told us every five or ten minutes. This was during our last visit with him at a private, seaside home in Barbados.
In addition, Trump not being able to recall which country he bombed last spring is a serious indicator of mental debility. A president bombing any nation doesn't just forget which one it is, I don't care how "objectionable" he acts in other areas.
The reason for the concern, as the contributors to the book 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump' note, is precisely because of Trump's access to the nuclear codes. If he then cannot recall which country he bombed within hours of doing it who's to say he may not recall pressing a sequence of nuclear codes because he "thinks" it's called for, owing to an attack? I mean we just had a bogus missile attack scare in Hawaii. Who is to say that the next time Dotard won't respond with an all out strike unless he's immediately restrained?
Hell, we already know that not only are there cognitive impairment issues in play, but hair trigger fear and anger dynamics as well. (Which can also be part of Alzheimer's). 'Art of the Deal' ghost writer Michael T. Schwarz in the anthology 'The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump' warns:
"His amygdala is repeatedly triggered...and his prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain that makes us capable of rationality and reflection - shuts down. He reacts rather than reflects - and damn the consequences. This is what makes his access to the nuclear codes so dangerous and frightening."
Lastly, it is important to recall - including by Dr. Ronny Jackson - that Alzheimer's already runs in Trump's family. His father Fred was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease six years before his death. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, “age, family history and heredity” are the most important risk factors in developing the disease.
What we really need, if Dr. Jackson isn't prepared to present us an actual video of his patient taking this cognitive test in real time, is at least doing a PET (positive emission tomography) scan which would reveal the telltale tangles and amyloid plaques that characterize the disease.
But don't just offer us a PR favorable or hyped "optics" announcement that this guy with his mitts near the nuclear football is A-ok mentally. I for one don't buy it, not without much harder proof.. As Shayl put it:
"Show me the damned video - and the PET scan!"
See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/77285/as-trump-would-say-his-check-up-went-unbelievably-well
Excerpt:
"No one could watch a Trump interview from 20 years ago and then a Trump interview from last year and arrive at any conclusion other than that of egregious mental decline. As noted, Who ya gonna believe, your lyin' eyes and ears or Dr. Rufus T. Firefly and the Medical Division of the Ministry of Fake Truth?"
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jack-lessenberry/77266/when-the-emperor-is-insane
"Show me the damned video - and the PET scan!"
See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/77285/as-trump-would-say-his-check-up-went-unbelievably-well
Excerpt:
"No one could watch a Trump interview from 20 years ago and then a Trump interview from last year and arrive at any conclusion other than that of egregious mental decline. As noted, Who ya gonna believe, your lyin' eyes and ears or Dr. Rufus T. Firefly and the Medical Division of the Ministry of Fake Truth?"
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jack-lessenberry/77266/when-the-emperor-is-insane
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