The All Things Political Topic - SNAFU edition

[Bartimaeus]

I confess that I didn't put much stock in Trump taking the test again: it's at least the third time he's taken it and bragged about it after the fact for reasons only understandable to the uniquely stupid person known as Donald J. Trump. Every time it's been administered, there's been the same sort of "the fact that a doctor forced(?) him to take it implies bad things about his mental state" media reaction to it, but like most "surely he's doomed now" headlines concerning Trump*, that unfortunately really just doesn't matter to anyone who didn't already care the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth times they read it. The amusement I got out of it was the irony of Trump conflating a cognition test with an IQ test, but it's not like we didn't already know the guy was dumb.

*Everyone should know all too well by now that the only headline that will convince anyone of Trump's certain doom is the one that announces his actual literal death. Until then or maybe until the economy really explodes and we've got tens of millions of people demonstrating in the streets weekly, I'm afraid that he will unfortunately continue to get away with just about everything. Not that we should ignore everything in the interim, but we've clearly decided as a nation where we're going with this until we reach a real boiling point that actually gets through to the average news-disconnected moron in our great country of proud ignorance and inequality.

Edited 16 hours ago by Bartimaeus

[Gromnir]

53 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

it's at least the third time he's taken it and bragged about it after the fact for reasons only understandable to the uniquely stupid person known as Donald J. Trump.

trump's improbable ignorance is tedious for multiple reasons, but not least 'cause it compels normal people to fill in the logic and reason holes he leaves behind when he provides an explanation for getting a dementia test, imposing tariffs on brazil, or suggesting merrick garland should be investigated for the 2020 election fraud scheme.  'cause trump explanations don't make sense if you take him literal, even the folks at msnbc will reflexive fill in the gaps or massage trump explanations/excuses with something plausible. otherwise most any discussion o' trump would devolve into concluding that the President is an idiot, which while accurate is not particular constructive. 

that said, trump has a few patterns, and doubling down is one o' his most predictable. after trump were questioned and mocked about his 2018 dementia test braggadocio, am thinking most o' us thought it weren't gonna be the last we heard o' how fantabulous he were for acing the test. maybe not as funny as his ongoing and evolving war on windmills,

but the pattern is similar. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Gromnir

[Bartimaeus]

4 hours ago, Gromnir said:

trump's improbable ignorance is tedious for multiple reasons, but not least 'cause it compels normal people to fill in the logic and reason holes he leaves behind when he provides an explanation for getting a dementia test, imposing tariffs on brazil, or suggesting merrick garland should be investigated for the 2020 election fraud scheme.  'cause trump explanations don't make sense if you take him literal, even the folks at msnbc will reflexive fill in the gaps or massage trump explanations/excuses with something plausible. otherwise most any discussion o' trump would devolve into concluding that the President is an idiot, which while accurate is not particular constructive. 

Lies, stupidity, and ignorance are the central axes by which Trump and his administration function, and this web of chaos infects virtually every function of government, including even these health exams. Trump is absolutely dumb enough to think that taking and passing the MoCA is a great feat - if he's the one doing it, anyways. But do we even know for sure if he actually took it, much less passed it, or are we just relying on his word? Under Biden, the full Walter Reed health reports were published on the White House .gov site, but as far as I can tell, Trump makes the whole damned staff there sign NDAs and diddly squat is ever officially published. The other times he's apparently taken the MoCA were not even at the behest of Walter Reed, but rather just the White House Physician, and we all know how 'respectable' that position has been under Trump, so that could be a bunch of crap too. Frankly, I'm surprised something like MoCA would even be a part of any serious testing of the president - isn't it a whole team of a dozen doctors and physicians? You'd think they'd be a little more involved than using just your standard single page assessment, and Walter Reed hasn't apparently ever administered or asked to administer the test to any president before. I really don't know: it's possible he's the one insisting on taking them because he's done them before and he's a giant manbaby showing off his kindergarten art drawings, it's possible the medical team think he's mad as a hatter and wanted him to, and it's possible that it literally wasn't even a part of the health exam at all. He could even just be getting confused because he apparently took one back in April with the White House Physician again (if that's even true). It's 1984 with this administration and he's a lying nutjob, so how do you not question literally every last thing that came out of his mouth? Until at least a single respectable and trustworthy source attests to Trump actually taking the test and passing it, you might as well just assume the whole thing is a big bag of lies and throw it all out, because right now all I'm seeing are liars flying off the handle as per usual and the actual decent people with their mouths firmly gagged.

Edited 11 hours ago by Bartimaeus

[rjshae]

I keep coming back to a quote by MacArthur about Roosevelt:

"...a man who would never tell the truth when a lie would serve him just as well."

I don't think DJT is an idiot; nor is he a genius. He's crafty, manipulative, and, at his age, still intelligent enough to retain a glib tongue. Given that his mental grasp of reality is highly questionable, I'd say we've never had a more dangerous President. Let him take all the cognitive tests he wants. That still doesn't mean he's a rational thinker.

[rjshae]

DJT wants to append a massive dance hall to the White House for $300 million. Well, okay. Washington D.C. was designed to impress foreign powers, so if a dance hall serves that purpose then it's in line with the founders intent. What I don't see a need for is a surface hallway connecting the two structures. It looks tacky. A more suitable approach would be to connect them with an underground tunnel.

Rather than a dance hall, I think the structure will evolve into a multi-purpose events hall for things like concerts and other happenings.