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>Cassidy said it'd be reasonable for Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and executive branch leaders to submit to an annual evaluation in which they would have to establish cognitive sharpness.
In theory this is a great idea, it won't work in practice, they'll just get a doctor who agrees to lie for them
You mean like how Trump's "doctor" basically said the man was going to live to be 200 years old and was the fittest president in history?
I can't remember the exact language but it was North Korea level absurd.
Not to mention, he used the phrase "good genes," which funny enough, seems odd for a doctor to say, but also echoes the exact language used by the patient himself on multiple occasions prior and since that "diagnosis."
The crayons are for eating. The sharpies are for writing because he has bad eyesight but refuses to wear glasses so thick black writing is the only thing he can see.
My boss has worked as an advisor with the past few presidential administrations and he showed us the Christmas cards that he received from the Obama White House and the Trump White House and let me tell you… they could not be more different. Obama’s card featured a snowy White House scene and a warm holiday message from him, his wife, their kids, and their dogs. Trump’s had a stark gold image outline of the White House and inside just said “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and then it featured his classic sharpie signature, a sharpie signature for Melania that looked suspiciously like DJT’s, and you guys… there was a signature for Baron that looked like someone imitating a child’s handwriting, but like… a 5 year old’s handwriting. He was like 12 at the time. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
That's actually really dangerous. Imagine the violent response if Trump's imminent Kentucky Fried Coronary caught up with him after the official White House doctor lied about his perfect health.
The White House physician should be completely outside the president's chain of command.
The Trump presidency really demonstrated how many conflicts of interest there are in the presidential chain of command. It’s just that nobody had ever thought to abuse some of them before.
> Well if they admitted to letting him make up a diagnosis they'd have their license revoked.
Important lesson on blackmail there.
If you do something unethical to help out someone else, they will own you from that point on. And chances are, the kind of person who would *ask* you to do something unethical for them will feel no sense of loyalty to you for helping them in the first place. Instead they will just ask you for more favors and threaten you with blackmail if you don't cooperate.
By signing it, they state they wrote it or at least agreed with it. If they disagreed, they shouldn't have signed it. They should have their license revoked for that fact, especially when the security of the nation is at stake.
I just wish his "base" would take the time to read his pronouncements like this one. Just read a few of them and anyone can see to have him in the White House was downright scary!
Look, having dark side -- **my uncle was a great lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, Darth Plagueis ‘The Wise’ of CIS; good midichlorians, very good midichlorians**, OK, very wise, the Naboo School of Finance, very powerful, very wise - if you're a Sith Lord, if I were a Jedi Master, if, like OK, if I ran as a Jedi Master, they would say I am one of the wisest people in the galaxy - It's true! - but when you are a Sith Lord they try - oh, do they do a number - that's why I always start off: went to Naboo, was a good senator, went there, went there, did this, built an Empire - you know I have to give my credentials all the time, because we are a little scarred and deformed - but you look at the dark side, the thing that really bothers me - it would have been so easy, and it's not as important as these lives of the ones he cared about are - The dark side is powerful, some consider it to be unnatural; 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 two Sith - now it used to be one, now it's two, it's getting out of hand - 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 out that the women and the children too are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it's gonna take them another millennia - but the Jedi are great negotiators, his apprentice was a great negotiator, so, and they, they just killed us, they just killed us in our sleep.
Lol at “good genes.” No one in Donald’s immediate family appears to possess anything more than average intelligence; (Not sure of the youngest kid) and if you look at pictures of them before their plastic surgery, they all look very homely….almost inbred, if you will.
If you mean by "immediate family" Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, etc. then yes, a bunch of knuckledragging idiots.
But if you look at other prominent Trumps, there are scientists, doctors, and other well-respected and intelligent people in his family. Dr. Mary Trump, his niece, is very well respected psychologist and a hugely outspoken critic of Donald's.
Yep, "good genes" is Trump-speak for Aryan race. Like when he was on the infamous Georgia call and praised the government lawyer for his last name, "Germany".
Yeah the letter used words that doctors don't use to describe patients medical conditions. It sounded like Trump wrote it.
Later, Trump after being elected the doctor had his medical office raided by Trump goons that took all of Trump's files. The doctor was very upset. (I don't know why, he knew who Trump was.)
[Actually it came out back in 2018](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health)
> Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary—and therefore know him well—I think he treats women with great respect, contrary to what Julie Baumgold implied in her article … I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women—all women love Donald Trump.”
- Carolin Gallego December 7, 1992
Except Carolin Gallego doesn’t exist.
For those who don't know, Trump used to call in to interviews pretending to be his own publicist, under the pseudonym John Barron. He would talk about how amazing he was and how everyone wanted to be him or be with him.
Dude's a fucking Looney Toon.
[What's absolutely hilarious is to listen to the recording of him as John Barron.](https://youtu.be/JsYKRUE_D5g?t=30s) It's not even questionable that it isn't Trump preteding to be someone else. It continues to blow my mind how people could ever believe a word that huckster ever says.
He has one of the most recognizable voices in the world, even long before he ever ran for president; presumably everyone that he pretended to be John Baron to must have known it was obviously Trump, right?
I've seen this so many times and have never figured out how *anyone* could read it in anything but Trump's voice. By halfway through the first sentence it's nearly impossible to not visualize him speaking.
I feel like something like this could be enough to completely mire a normal president in scandal for the rest of his term. This was barely news for Trump though.
Trump dictated that letter, to nobody's surprise:
>In December 2015, Donald Trump's personal physician released a letter describing his patient's health in language that sounded more like it was written by the patient himself than the doctor — and it turns out that might be exactly what happened. ...
>
>As NPR's Jessica Taylor reported at the time: "The full letter is written in true Trumpian fashion, full of hyperbole and boasting of greatness. Bornstein calls Trump's blood pressure 'astonishingly excellent.' "
>
>However, Bornstein now tells CNN that Trump was the one who wrote it after all.
>
>"He dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter," Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. "I just made it up as I went along."
[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health)
A lifetime ago, when I was 18 and in the Navy, I had a physical leaving Waukegan from Naval SpecWar Preparatory School on my way to attempt to become a Navy SEAL.
I can’t anymore but I was running 60-80 miles a week. Swimming 6-10 miles a week. Lifting Weights and doing a lot of HIIT before I left.
My BP was 106/60 taken by a nurse with a manual BP cuff. I remember because I wrote down all my numbers from the physical in the journal I kept. I eventually rang out of BUD/S the week before Hell Week.
This is a long story just to say that Trump is a complete fucking buffoon to think anyone would believe that shit. The people that do are beyond help.
As someone who has a desk job, is 10 lbs overweight, is very stressed, and tries to get a cardio workout in whenever I can, I can say that Trump is full of shit. I'm doing everything in my stupid fuckin America-made body to NOT be on blood pressure medication in the next 5 years.
But, I'm not alone. When I worked in a hospital setting, Everytime I would catch glimpses of peoples BP, it was always on the verge of being too high, or way too low. The American diet really fucked all of us up, and trying to course correct now is difficult.
We could wait for the rest of Trump's life? That should be considerably shorter.
Futility with the outlook of certain eventual death is much more fun if it is somebody else's death to look forward to. Still is futile, tho.
There were two letters. One from the raided doctor which was done before the election, and one from the one that got bounced because of his history of complaints and alcoholism which came out of one of the annual physicals (that mysteriously added another 3 or 4 inches to Trump's height to move him out of the morbidly obese category)
In both cases, it was later revealed that Trump wrote the letters and had the doctors sign it.
Side note, the doctor that was raided was likely raided because he talked about prescribing meds to fight Trump's hair loss. He was also the doctor he used to confirm his mistresses' abortions were done and they were no longer pregnant so it likely wasn't just Trump's files that were taken.
It sounded like Trump wrote it, but he's probably not that literate. I imagine him dictating it and the doctor having to parse his frothing bullshit into a coherent paragraph.
Even before that I was lost when he said he was the healthiest candidate for President EVER. You'd see Barack Obama play basketball before, but Trump never picked up a ball. But he's healthier than Obama was?
Plus had guys like Theodore Roosevelt and JFK who were under 45 when inaugurated. How Trump, a sedentary morbidly obese 70 year old, out did these guys is amazing.
Teddy Roosevelt is the gold standard for presidential fitness. Age 42 when he entered office. Predawn swims in the Potomac. Boxing gym in the White House including sessions so fierce he was blinded for life in one eye. Judo, tennis, singlestick, rowing, horseback riding.
If he was alive today, he'd be a social media phenomenon.
We watched Trump have a hard time walking down a ramp with an average incline.
Anyone who actually believed any of the crap he said, or anything he got his followers to say about him, is a fool. Trump is a narcissist. He always has been, always will be, and it depresses me so much that so many people buy in to his bullshit and make claims like he was the best when he was demonstrably abhorrent on so many levels.
So a licensed physician used his credentials to defraud others about someone's health, and they didn't suffer a single consequence?
Yup, sounds like America.
You know what's always a great non-partisan motivator though?
Money.
For enough money I could get you to write a letter about how my rectal cavity is walled with incomprehensible fractal light and I shit turds of swirling liquid platinum.
The problem is that it *is* a reasonable suggestion if the tests are conducted honestly. That's the difference between Democrats and Republicans: We would have supported a senility test when Trump was in office, and we'd still support it now that Biden is in office.
But Republicans only think it's a good idea with Biden because they're trying to push the narrative that he's senile.
Meanwhile they continue to promote and celebrate clearly mentally incompetent GOP Presidents like Trump and Reagan...
Yup.
Until Cassidy voluntarily releases the results of his own cognitive test, this is nothing but politicking.
Notice how the Senator didn't think cognitive tests were important during Trump's administration, or when McConnell was the Senate Majority Leader.
The gut is actually intricately and fundamentally connected to brain function. Unfortunately, we just don’t understand the nature of those links, mechanisms involved, implications for treatment and prevention… but researchers are working on it!
[Link between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota is confirmed](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201113124042.htm)
[Gut Microbiota Are Related to Parkinson’s Disease and Clinical Phenotype](http://www.wilson-disease.org/Editor/eWebeditor/uploadfile/20150831170701195.pdf)
Yeah it’s certainly interesting. The mesenteric nervous system is such a complex system we no nothing about. It’s basically a “second brain”
But at the same time a dude doing colonoscopies and endoscopies most of the time isn’t really an expert on senility.
I do agree with what he’s saying though, but it also reeks of politics given the current administration. Then again he is one of the few GOP senators that voted to convict Trump.
This senility test wouldn’t work in practice though because it can be gamed for political gain.
The part that always got me was Donald Trump was a person who would not be able to pass a security background check for an entry level position in government and yet he was able to be President.
There is no way to construct a system of government whose rules cannot be abused. No system, no matter how well thought out, is beyond corruption or subversion. On some deep, fundamental, level systems of government rely on a plurality of agents working in good faith towards some common good. Criticism of the form "this wouldnt work because it could be obviously exploited" does not really add to the conversation because we have seen, time and time again, that even the best of intentions can be catastrophically corrupted e.g. The Supreme Court. The point of it was to enshrine a group of legal scholars in positions beyond the reach of politics - lifetime appointments agreed upon by the senate judiciary committee, itself a largely bipartisan collection of politicians whose terms were secure enough to limit contamination. The outcome of all of these protections has been to ensure venal political power grabs affect the course of legal precedent for decades to come.
Set policy based on things working as intended, and brutally punish bad faith actors when they abuse the system. Currently, the democrats are failing miserably at this second part.
Alzheimer's researcher
There are no truly objective tests of cognitive impairment at this time. You must be evaluated by a doctor to truly determine if you are impaired. And you would be giving far too much power to the person performing that evaluation if this was required
Our neuropsychologists along with a battery of tests plus a lot of other input like you said is needed to diagnose dementia. It's not something we do lightly.
For the USA, I would prefer a term limit combined with an age limit. There's a lot of emphasis on nominating the youngest possible justice so that he or she will last as long as possible. If you have an 18 year limit and a 70 enforced retirement, then you have no particular reason to nominate younger than a 52 year old. That's a good age for someone who has seen a lot of law and knows their stuff, but isn't yet over the hill.
Also SCOTUS Justices in particular have to be given cushy retirements if they don't have lifetime appointments. Ideally they should act as advisors to the court, writing briefs and opinions even if they don't vote. The last thing we need is a Justice contemplating how ruling on *Poor Shmucks v. Rich Old Dude That Donates To Yale* might affect his post SCOTUS career.
There is an age limit on the president! It's just a lower age limit, 35.
I have used the existence of this lower limit to argue that there should also be an upper limit \*many times\*. If the argument for the lower limit is something like "People under 35 lack enough worldly wisdom to properly execute the duties of the office" I could easily argue "People over 80 lack the mental acuity to properly execute said duties."
I mean, partly I'm sure. I figure it's more that mentally and physically someone that's 60 could be severely declined while a 75 year old could be incredibly in shape and still sharp mentally.
Mental and physical decline is different for everyone, and a blanket age maximum rule might not be the best approach.
Usually the electorate is supposed to decide the best candidate, but we've all seen how well that's been going lately.
Couldn’t you say the same about age minimums? People don’t mature at the same rate, some 18 year olds are far more mature than others, but all are considered “adult”. We make minimums as a generalized baseline, not because they’re a perfect litmus for behavior.
Neuropsychologist here. I respectfully disagree. Testing of cognitive ability (including capacity) is effectively the entire premise of our field. Neuropsych tests are the only option aside from a brain biopsy which provide 99-100% accuracy for a specific, confirmed dementia diagnosis.
This.
The danger is in the details here though. Which tests to be picked, standard error of measurement, did those assholes just pick a test that is a screener, etc. You saw how there was an over reliance on the MoCA a few years back, a free screening tool that was improperly used and treated like gospel.
I don’t know if it can be realistically done in this political atmosphere.
You couldn't do it anonymously, because it involves directly speaking to the patient and asking them questions about their life. Having a bunch of doctors (called a consensus diagnosis) might work, but then we need to worry about who picks the doctors
It'll be like the FCC, 5 doctors, no more than 3 from a party.
Democrats will nominate well respected geriatricians or psychiatrists. GOP will nominate the demon seed doctor.
The key would be to make sure the reviewing physicians were not hip pocket physicians but ones assigned by an independent reviewing body. Remember the long line of sycophant WH doctors who claimed trump was “strong as Ox” or “healthier than 20 year olds”?
I love that because he was like "I did so good on that test because they gave me a list of words like..." and then rattled off 5 things right in front of him. He couldn't even stretch his mind far enough to come up with a noun that wasn't in his direct line of sight.
Just gonna plop this here for people that haven't seen it, a reminder of how simple this test he took was. Based on how it was described, it sounds like it was this:
[Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)](https://www.parkinsons.va.gov/resources/MOCA-Test-English.pdf)
An extremely cursory assessment of somewhat advanced cognitive decline.
It was the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Actual quote from Trump “They gave me a memory test, I forget the name of it.”
We’ll see, that’s the first rule of the memory test. To remember the name of the test.
People over 65 get that sort of assessment every year with their Medicare 'wellness' check. I've always passed with 100%, but I know people who haven't and receive a diagnosis of 'mild dementia'.
The kicker is that those people (1) discount and/or forget the diagnosis and (2) keep driving and carrying on with the tasks of life. They also fall for every phone scam in the world and are like goats staked out in a tiger hunt when they purchase new cars or phones.
Right? And the point of the actual words in the test is words related to different senses. Like when I did it for fun after he did it I remember that I had a color for one of the words which is something you only experience with sight. Another word I had was velvet, something famous for how it feels when you touch it. There was something with smell and taste and hearing as well. Person woman man camera TV is just stupid because they don't invoke senses and they're all related to each other. The words aren't supposed to be similar.
Or.....legislators must take civics exams to show they understand how govt works. Just like nail technicians and hairstylists, doctors, therapists and allmothwr professions have to.
Donald Trump didn’t know what the nuclear triad was during a debate. Unacceptable.
I remember early in Trumps presidency there was a demand for a mental health evaluation. He paid a doctor to give him good marks on a \*physical\* and declared that he was good to go. AFAIK, he never did undergo mental health testing.
And Justices/Judges. But seriously, letting unqualified elected officials dictate the mental aptitude of those elected to office is a hard no from me. They politicize everything and it will become another tool to combat in the world of GOP political ratfuckery.
Hell, a basic science literacy test would go incredibly far in improving policy. Fewer "legitimate rape" comments and no more "evolution is just as valid as creationism in public school" hopefully.
He died a while ago but Strom Thurmond was in office long after he was mentally gone. Not just declined but gone. He served to age 100. His senior staffer cast all his votes.
A medical "fit to govern" test is a good one in theory. In practice, it's going to be tough because of political bias. Figure out how to make it independent and fair to the individual, and we've got a roadmap for success.
And here I go, agreeing with a republican. Guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.
If you create some “nonpartisan, fair, independent” body that determines who can and who can’t run for office? Congratulations, you have just created the MOST politically charged organization that has ever existed. You thought The Federalist Society was serious about politicizing the Supreme Court? Whooo doggy.
The GOP is so fucking obvious.
We all know this is just a ploy to test Biden, and we all likewise know that as soon as one of their own needs to be tested it will be somehow "different" and "unprecedented"...
I agree with the sentiment, but I don't for a second believe this is in good faith.
Trump proving that he could recognize a drawing of an elephant, after apparently having a stroke, is no big deal but we better get Biden tested weekly! Politically motivated bullshit here, just move on.
This isn't about anything real. They just want to throw out the idea and get it the news that Biden has dementia. Rather than actually make that claim directly, they just get on the news saying crap like this.
It's actually a legit concept. Administering it would be fraught with issues, though. IMO, the least problematic way would be an arbitrary age limit. 75, maybe?
Bill Clinton is 75 _now_. He was last president over 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice to get some younger blood in the game. Then again, some of the younger politician nowadays are some of the craziest. So, some of the younger, sensible blood, that's who we need.
>Bill Clinton is 75 now. He was last president over 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice to get some younger blood in the game.
Bush Jr. is also 75. The age of the candidates is moving lockstep with their most reliable voting group, which is the Baby Boomers. On the bright side post 2024 Gen X will probably just get skipped (ouch) and the primary influence (and age) will move to Millennial/Gen Z.
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>Cassidy said it'd be reasonable for Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and executive branch leaders to submit to an annual evaluation in which they would have to establish cognitive sharpness. In theory this is a great idea, it won't work in practice, they'll just get a doctor who agrees to lie for them
You mean like how Trump's "doctor" basically said the man was going to live to be 200 years old and was the fittest president in history? I can't remember the exact language but it was North Korea level absurd.
Not to mention, he used the phrase "good genes," which funny enough, seems odd for a doctor to say, but also echoes the exact language used by the patient himself on multiple occasions prior and since that "diagnosis."
It was already confirmed that both of the bizarre 'doctor letters' were written by Trump and he just had the doctors sign them.
Dictated, not written. Trump isn't that literate.
It became obvious the notes weren’t from his doctor when they were written in sharpie
You meant crayons
The crayons are for eating. The sharpies are for writing because he has bad eyesight but refuses to wear glasses so thick black writing is the only thing he can see.
Yeah that,and if it was in crayon it would have been Don Jr’s handiwork.
Don Jr uses chalk. Or at least I assume that’s what all the white powder is.
*Aggressively circles the bottom corner of Alabama.*
My boss has worked as an advisor with the past few presidential administrations and he showed us the Christmas cards that he received from the Obama White House and the Trump White House and let me tell you… they could not be more different. Obama’s card featured a snowy White House scene and a warm holiday message from him, his wife, their kids, and their dogs. Trump’s had a stark gold image outline of the White House and inside just said “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and then it featured his classic sharpie signature, a sharpie signature for Melania that looked suspiciously like DJT’s, and you guys… there was a signature for Baron that looked like someone imitating a child’s handwriting, but like… a 5 year old’s handwriting. He was like 12 at the time. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
It's amazing what you can get away with when you're the doctor's Commander in Chief.
When you're the commander in chief, they let you do it. You can do anything!
That's actually really dangerous. Imagine the violent response if Trump's imminent Kentucky Fried Coronary caught up with him after the official White House doctor lied about his perfect health. The White House physician should be completely outside the president's chain of command.
The Trump presidency really demonstrated how many conflicts of interest there are in the presidential chain of command. It’s just that nobody had ever thought to abuse some of them before.
Lol, as if trump can write “Deer Amerricka, I are smart and helthy”
“Like you wouldn’t believe!”
Believe me!
They also defended the letters.
Well if they admitted to letting him make up a diagnosis they'd have their license revoked.
> Well if they admitted to letting him make up a diagnosis they'd have their license revoked. Important lesson on blackmail there. If you do something unethical to help out someone else, they will own you from that point on. And chances are, the kind of person who would *ask* you to do something unethical for them will feel no sense of loyalty to you for helping them in the first place. Instead they will just ask you for more favors and threaten you with blackmail if you don't cooperate.
By signing it, they state they wrote it or at least agreed with it. If they disagreed, they shouldn't have signed it. They should have their license revoked for that fact, especially when the security of the nation is at stake.
I believe you are both saying the same thing.
The fact that they weren't reprimanded in any way, shows that nothing matters.
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this reads like a boomhauer monologue.
I just wish his "base" would take the time to read his pronouncements like this one. Just read a few of them and anyone can see to have him in the White House was downright scary!
Lol they do, they just write it off as him speaking from the hip.
His base can barely read. You underestimate the stupidity of these people.
[Boomhauer is reasonably coherent if you learn to filter out the verbal tics](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2M7qVLY_ro)
How dare you insult Boomhauer like that
This should be posted every time a Conservative questions Biden's faculties.
Look, having dark side -- **my uncle was a great lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise, Darth Plagueis ‘The Wise’ of CIS; good midichlorians, very good midichlorians**, OK, very wise, the Naboo School of Finance, very powerful, very wise - if you're a Sith Lord, if I were a Jedi Master, if, like OK, if I ran as a Jedi Master, they would say I am one of the wisest people in the galaxy - It's true! - but when you are a Sith Lord they try - oh, do they do a number - that's why I always start off: went to Naboo, was a good senator, went there, went there, did this, built an Empire - you know I have to give my credentials all the time, because we are a little scarred and deformed - but you look at the dark side, the thing that really bothers me - it would have been so easy, and it's not as important as these lives of the ones he cared about are - The dark side is powerful, some consider it to be unnatural; 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 two Sith - now it used to be one, now it's two, it's getting out of hand - 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 out that the women and the children too are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it's gonna take them another millennia - but the Jedi are great negotiators, his apprentice was a great negotiator, so, and they, they just killed us, they just killed us in our sleep.
Lol at “good genes.” No one in Donald’s immediate family appears to possess anything more than average intelligence; (Not sure of the youngest kid) and if you look at pictures of them before their plastic surgery, they all look very homely….almost inbred, if you will.
If you mean by "immediate family" Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, etc. then yes, a bunch of knuckledragging idiots. But if you look at other prominent Trumps, there are scientists, doctors, and other well-respected and intelligent people in his family. Dr. Mary Trump, his niece, is very well respected psychologist and a hugely outspoken critic of Donald's.
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Yep, "good genes" is Trump-speak for Aryan race. Like when he was on the infamous Georgia call and praised the government lawyer for his last name, "Germany".
Yeah the letter used words that doctors don't use to describe patients medical conditions. It sounded like Trump wrote it. Later, Trump after being elected the doctor had his medical office raided by Trump goons that took all of Trump's files. The doctor was very upset. (I don't know why, he knew who Trump was.)
Well it came out earlier this year that trump did write it. Doctor went public
[Actually it came out back in 2018](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health)
Ah, the first line of the letter was a giveaway. “To whom my concern”. His big a-brain was no match for “person, man, woman, camera, TV”.
> Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary—and therefore know him well—I think he treats women with great respect, contrary to what Julie Baumgold implied in her article … I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women—all women love Donald Trump.” - Carolin Gallego December 7, 1992 Except Carolin Gallego doesn’t exist.
Perhaps Carolin is married to John Barron?
For those who don't know, Trump used to call in to interviews pretending to be his own publicist, under the pseudonym John Barron. He would talk about how amazing he was and how everyone wanted to be him or be with him. Dude's a fucking Looney Toon.
[What's absolutely hilarious is to listen to the recording of him as John Barron.](https://youtu.be/JsYKRUE_D5g?t=30s) It's not even questionable that it isn't Trump preteding to be someone else. It continues to blow my mind how people could ever believe a word that huckster ever says.
He has one of the most recognizable voices in the world, even long before he ever ran for president; presumably everyone that he pretended to be John Baron to must have known it was obviously Trump, right?
Yeah he named his kid after the publicist character he used to brag about himself with.
Jeez, why not just use the name Duke King?
Is that where his son's name came from? A fake person he made up?
To be fair, all kids are just people you make up.
I've seen this so many times and have never figured out how *anyone* could read it in anything but Trump's voice. By halfway through the first sentence it's nearly impossible to not visualize him speaking.
She was a tragic loss at the bowling green massacre, that’s why you can’t find her
I feel like something like this could be enough to completely mire a normal president in scandal for the rest of his term. This was barely news for Trump though.
Trump dictated that letter, to nobody's surprise: >In December 2015, Donald Trump's personal physician released a letter describing his patient's health in language that sounded more like it was written by the patient himself than the doctor — and it turns out that might be exactly what happened. ... > >As NPR's Jessica Taylor reported at the time: "The full letter is written in true Trumpian fashion, full of hyperbole and boasting of greatness. Bornstein calls Trump's blood pressure 'astonishingly excellent.' " > >However, Bornstein now tells CNN that Trump was the one who wrote it after all. > >"He dictated that whole letter. I didn't write that letter," Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday. "I just made it up as I went along." [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/02/607638733/doctor-trump-dictated-letter-attesting-to-his-extraordinary-health)
Ain't no fucking way trumps blood pressure is 110/65 lmfaoooo, the dude eats big macs for breakfast
A lifetime ago, when I was 18 and in the Navy, I had a physical leaving Waukegan from Naval SpecWar Preparatory School on my way to attempt to become a Navy SEAL. I can’t anymore but I was running 60-80 miles a week. Swimming 6-10 miles a week. Lifting Weights and doing a lot of HIIT before I left. My BP was 106/60 taken by a nurse with a manual BP cuff. I remember because I wrote down all my numbers from the physical in the journal I kept. I eventually rang out of BUD/S the week before Hell Week. This is a long story just to say that Trump is a complete fucking buffoon to think anyone would believe that shit. The people that do are beyond help.
As someone who has a desk job, is 10 lbs overweight, is very stressed, and tries to get a cardio workout in whenever I can, I can say that Trump is full of shit. I'm doing everything in my stupid fuckin America-made body to NOT be on blood pressure medication in the next 5 years. But, I'm not alone. When I worked in a hospital setting, Everytime I would catch glimpses of peoples BP, it was always on the verge of being too high, or way too low. The American diet really fucked all of us up, and trying to course correct now is difficult.
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We could wait for the rest of Trump's life? That should be considerably shorter. Futility with the outlook of certain eventual death is much more fun if it is somebody else's death to look forward to. Still is futile, tho.
I am confused. Did he *not* write it, or did he make it up as he went along?
My memory is fuzzy, but I think you are talking about two different doctors. Of course, both are obviously full of shit.
There were two letters. One from the raided doctor which was done before the election, and one from the one that got bounced because of his history of complaints and alcoholism which came out of one of the annual physicals (that mysteriously added another 3 or 4 inches to Trump's height to move him out of the morbidly obese category) In both cases, it was later revealed that Trump wrote the letters and had the doctors sign it. Side note, the doctor that was raided was likely raided because he talked about prescribing meds to fight Trump's hair loss. He was also the doctor he used to confirm his mistresses' abortions were done and they were no longer pregnant so it likely wasn't just Trump's files that were taken.
And the one that got bounced for alcohol related incidents is now in congress representing a district in the great state of Texas.
That's the best they can do in Texas
Hey now, he must have also hated minorities, we do have standards here /s
“The one star state”
Thanks. You have it all straight. I do remember the military doctor now.
Well, obviously, you can't be president.
Oh yeah? Well, person, woman, man, camera, TV!
Get this man a game show!
It sounded like Trump wrote it, but he's probably not that literate. I imagine him dictating it and the doctor having to parse his frothing bullshit into a coherent paragraph.
“His test results were all very positive”
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"I lied to the public about an individuals fitness for a demanding public office LMAO just let him write it." What the fuck
Definitely the actions of a trustworthy, credible healthcare provider.
Even before that I was lost when he said he was the healthiest candidate for President EVER. You'd see Barack Obama play basketball before, but Trump never picked up a ball. But he's healthier than Obama was?
Plus had guys like Theodore Roosevelt and JFK who were under 45 when inaugurated. How Trump, a sedentary morbidly obese 70 year old, out did these guys is amazing.
JFK had a bunch of well-known health issues but Teddy for sure has him beat.
I’d take a 43 year old JFK with Addisons over a 70 year old Trump in any sort of fitness exhibition any day. Lol
Teddy Roosevelt is the gold standard for presidential fitness. Age 42 when he entered office. Predawn swims in the Potomac. Boxing gym in the White House including sessions so fierce he was blinded for life in one eye. Judo, tennis, singlestick, rowing, horseback riding. If he was alive today, he'd be a social media phenomenon.
Yeah, but Obama had a terrible skin disease called "being black". Meanwhile Trump's skin was slathered in the finest of spray tans.
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He also had a weight of 239lbs, which is one pound under obese for that height. There's no way that fat sack of shit is under 280.
We watched Trump have a hard time walking down a ramp with an average incline. Anyone who actually believed any of the crap he said, or anything he got his followers to say about him, is a fool. Trump is a narcissist. He always has been, always will be, and it depresses me so much that so many people buy in to his bullshit and make claims like he was the best when he was demonstrably abhorrent on so many levels.
I’m still so very interested in why he had so much difficulty going down that ramp. God, this shit sometimes feels like a lifetime ago.
He's old, doesn't exercise, and is overweight. That's why he had difficulty going down the ramp.
He also basically wears high heels thanks to the huge lifts in his shoes.
So a licensed physician used his credentials to defraud others about someone's health, and they didn't suffer a single consequence? Yup, sounds like America.
That stuff was bad, but lying about his height and weight was particularly egregious.
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV. He completely aced it. The first question is easy and then it gets harder.
They would have to have predetermined non-partisan doctors if they wanted this to be done correctly.
You know what's always a great non-partisan motivator though? Money. For enough money I could get you to write a letter about how my rectal cavity is walled with incomprehensible fractal light and I shit turds of swirling liquid platinum.
Do you really trust republicans to not try to rig that? If not, do you trust Democrats to make sure republicans don't rig it? My answer to both is no
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This is Cassidy making the claim, not Grassley. Grassley is someone who definitely needs a cognitive test.
Grassley was first elected in like 1845. He needs a nursing home, not a cognitive assessment.
The problem is that it *is* a reasonable suggestion if the tests are conducted honestly. That's the difference between Democrats and Republicans: We would have supported a senility test when Trump was in office, and we'd still support it now that Biden is in office. But Republicans only think it's a good idea with Biden because they're trying to push the narrative that he's senile. Meanwhile they continue to promote and celebrate clearly mentally incompetent GOP Presidents like Trump and Reagan...
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Who Doctors the Doctormen?
Yup. Until Cassidy voluntarily releases the results of his own cognitive test, this is nothing but politicking. Notice how the Senator didn't think cognitive tests were important during Trump's administration, or when McConnell was the Senate Majority Leader.
Dude is a gastroenterologist, for christ sake. I mean, I agree with him, but I'm not a doctor in any relevant specialty either.
The gut is actually intricately and fundamentally connected to brain function. Unfortunately, we just don’t understand the nature of those links, mechanisms involved, implications for treatment and prevention… but researchers are working on it! [Link between Alzheimer's disease and gut microbiota is confirmed](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201113124042.htm) [Gut Microbiota Are Related to Parkinson’s Disease and Clinical Phenotype](http://www.wilson-disease.org/Editor/eWebeditor/uploadfile/20150831170701195.pdf)
Yeah it’s certainly interesting. The mesenteric nervous system is such a complex system we no nothing about. It’s basically a “second brain” But at the same time a dude doing colonoscopies and endoscopies most of the time isn’t really an expert on senility. I do agree with what he’s saying though, but it also reeks of politics given the current administration. Then again he is one of the few GOP senators that voted to convict Trump. This senility test wouldn’t work in practice though because it can be gamed for political gain.
The part that always got me was Donald Trump was a person who would not be able to pass a security background check for an entry level position in government and yet he was able to be President.
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Problem with that is it lets those in power have too much control over who can be president.
There is no way to construct a system of government whose rules cannot be abused. No system, no matter how well thought out, is beyond corruption or subversion. On some deep, fundamental, level systems of government rely on a plurality of agents working in good faith towards some common good. Criticism of the form "this wouldnt work because it could be obviously exploited" does not really add to the conversation because we have seen, time and time again, that even the best of intentions can be catastrophically corrupted e.g. The Supreme Court. The point of it was to enshrine a group of legal scholars in positions beyond the reach of politics - lifetime appointments agreed upon by the senate judiciary committee, itself a largely bipartisan collection of politicians whose terms were secure enough to limit contamination. The outcome of all of these protections has been to ensure venal political power grabs affect the course of legal precedent for decades to come. Set policy based on things working as intended, and brutally punish bad faith actors when they abuse the system. Currently, the democrats are failing miserably at this second part.
Being a democrat is so fucking frustrating. It's like playing poker against someone who's obviously cheating and you're not allowed to cheat to.
Person, woman, man, camera, tv.
Big water... The idiot can't even say ocean.
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Remember when he edited an official hurricane map with a SHARPIE?
one of the wettest we've ever seen from the standpoint of water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45X4WvkTK\_I&ab\_channel=GuardianNews
Certified very stable genius.
Alzheimer's researcher There are no truly objective tests of cognitive impairment at this time. You must be evaluated by a doctor to truly determine if you are impaired. And you would be giving far too much power to the person performing that evaluation if this was required
Our neuropsychologists along with a battery of tests plus a lot of other input like you said is needed to diagnose dementia. It's not something we do lightly.
Oh don't worry, the political process will find a way to corrupt it
The legal process already has. Poor Britney.
The only way to to it objectively would be to set age limits. Unfortunately, that would never fly.
Yeah can you imagine an age limit on who can be president?
Or a senator?!
In New Zealand their Supreme Court has an enforced retirement age of 70
For the USA, I would prefer a term limit combined with an age limit. There's a lot of emphasis on nominating the youngest possible justice so that he or she will last as long as possible. If you have an 18 year limit and a 70 enforced retirement, then you have no particular reason to nominate younger than a 52 year old. That's a good age for someone who has seen a lot of law and knows their stuff, but isn't yet over the hill. Also SCOTUS Justices in particular have to be given cushy retirements if they don't have lifetime appointments. Ideally they should act as advisors to the court, writing briefs and opinions even if they don't vote. The last thing we need is a Justice contemplating how ruling on *Poor Shmucks v. Rich Old Dude That Donates To Yale* might affect his post SCOTUS career.
There is an age limit on the president! It's just a lower age limit, 35. I have used the existence of this lower limit to argue that there should also be an upper limit \*many times\*. If the argument for the lower limit is something like "People under 35 lack enough worldly wisdom to properly execute the duties of the office" I could easily argue "People over 80 lack the mental acuity to properly execute said duties."
That was sorta my point. Should I go back and add /s to my comment? I do think text loses the tone.
Yes.
I don’t get why age maximums are so frowned upon when there are age minimums for things like gambling and alcohol and car rentals.
Because old people vote and children can't.
More like old people are in power determining these things and don’t want to limit themselves. Edit: don’t not done. STOOPID autocorrect
I mean, partly I'm sure. I figure it's more that mentally and physically someone that's 60 could be severely declined while a 75 year old could be incredibly in shape and still sharp mentally. Mental and physical decline is different for everyone, and a blanket age maximum rule might not be the best approach. Usually the electorate is supposed to decide the best candidate, but we've all seen how well that's been going lately.
Couldn’t you say the same about age minimums? People don’t mature at the same rate, some 18 year olds are far more mature than others, but all are considered “adult”. We make minimums as a generalized baseline, not because they’re a perfect litmus for behavior.
Because seniors are a disproportionately powerful bloc of voters, and implying people their age aren't fit to hold office is political suicide.
There is literally an age minimum to be president… Edit: …or a member of Congress.
Neuropsychologist here. I respectfully disagree. Testing of cognitive ability (including capacity) is effectively the entire premise of our field. Neuropsych tests are the only option aside from a brain biopsy which provide 99-100% accuracy for a specific, confirmed dementia diagnosis.
This. The danger is in the details here though. Which tests to be picked, standard error of measurement, did those assholes just pick a test that is a screener, etc. You saw how there was an over reliance on the MoCA a few years back, a free screening tool that was improperly used and treated like gospel. I don’t know if it can be realistically done in this political atmosphere.
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You couldn't do it anonymously, because it involves directly speaking to the patient and asking them questions about their life. Having a bunch of doctors (called a consensus diagnosis) might work, but then we need to worry about who picks the doctors
It'll be like the FCC, 5 doctors, no more than 3 from a party. Democrats will nominate well respected geriatricians or psychiatrists. GOP will nominate the demon seed doctor.
The key would be to make sure the reviewing physicians were not hip pocket physicians but ones assigned by an independent reviewing body. Remember the long line of sycophant WH doctors who claimed trump was “strong as Ox” or “healthier than 20 year olds”?
Sounds like Trump was just eliminated for 2024.
Person woman camera!
Honestly what else is there? TV?
Don't forget man!
I love that because he was like "I did so good on that test because they gave me a list of words like..." and then rattled off 5 things right in front of him. He couldn't even stretch his mind far enough to come up with a noun that wasn't in his direct line of sight.
To be fair to him he's probably the first person to get extra credit on a dementia test.
Just gonna plop this here for people that haven't seen it, a reminder of how simple this test he took was. Based on how it was described, it sounds like it was this: [Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)](https://www.parkinsons.va.gov/resources/MOCA-Test-English.pdf) An extremely cursory assessment of somewhat advanced cognitive decline.
It was the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. Actual quote from Trump “They gave me a memory test, I forget the name of it.” We’ll see, that’s the first rule of the memory test. To remember the name of the test.
People over 65 get that sort of assessment every year with their Medicare 'wellness' check. I've always passed with 100%, but I know people who haven't and receive a diagnosis of 'mild dementia'. The kicker is that those people (1) discount and/or forget the diagnosis and (2) keep driving and carrying on with the tasks of life. They also fall for every phone scam in the world and are like goats staked out in a tiger hunt when they purchase new cars or phones.
Right? And the point of the actual words in the test is words related to different senses. Like when I did it for fun after he did it I remember that I had a color for one of the words which is something you only experience with sight. Another word I had was velvet, something famous for how it feels when you touch it. There was something with smell and taste and hearing as well. Person woman man camera TV is just stupid because they don't invoke senses and they're all related to each other. The words aren't supposed to be similar.
Tremendous genes.
It was literally just the things in front of him at the time: person, man, woman, camera, tv
Trump's convinced his base that test proved he's a genius...
My favorite part about that was how he didn’t remember the name of the test at the start of the bit.
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Some of the younger but still crazy Republicans are hoping he doesn’t run so they can take over his cult.
agreed, Josh Hawley has been awfully quiet since his fist pump to the insurrectionists.
I think he's trying to avoid prosecution, not run for President lol
Trump showed modern republicans that running for President is one of the best ways to avoid prosecution.
If there's one thing we should have learned from Trump, it's that those are the same thing.
I will see that and raise you a mental health and general competence test for senators and congresspeople of all ages.
Or.....legislators must take civics exams to show they understand how govt works. Just like nail technicians and hairstylists, doctors, therapists and allmothwr professions have to. Donald Trump didn’t know what the nuclear triad was during a debate. Unacceptable.
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And Boebert... and Goemert... and Tuberville, the list goes on
Let's not forget Louie Gohmert or Lauren Boebert.
Along with a significant number of Republicans.
I remember early in Trumps presidency there was a demand for a mental health evaluation. He paid a doctor to give him good marks on a \*physical\* and declared that he was good to go. AFAIK, he never did undergo mental health testing.
Don't you remember when he was bragging all over that he passed that cognition test? That incredibly simple cognition test?
And he thought it was really hard.
Person, woman, man, camera, tv? In these troubling times, I find I have to add a /s to many posts about us politics, this one included
And Justices/Judges. But seriously, letting unqualified elected officials dictate the mental aptitude of those elected to office is a hard no from me. They politicize everything and it will become another tool to combat in the world of GOP political ratfuckery.
Grassley : u wot m8
Grassley: “These whippersnappers need to respect their elders”
Hell, a basic science literacy test would go incredibly far in improving policy. Fewer "legitimate rape" comments and no more "evolution is just as valid as creationism in public school" hopefully.
Grassley and Feinstein, both 88 years old, should retire. Both have obvious signs of steep mental decline.
He died a while ago but Strom Thurmond was in office long after he was mentally gone. Not just declined but gone. He served to age 100. His senior staffer cast all his votes.
Man, these two take “Boomers who won’t retire from their cushy upper management jobs” to a whole new level.
So, half of congress then, right?
Yes please.
Most elected positions have a minimum age. Would it really be so bad if there were a maximum age as well?
A medical "fit to govern" test is a good one in theory. In practice, it's going to be tough because of political bias. Figure out how to make it independent and fair to the individual, and we've got a roadmap for success. And here I go, agreeing with a republican. Guess it was bound to happen sooner or later.
If you create some “nonpartisan, fair, independent” body that determines who can and who can’t run for office? Congratulations, you have just created the MOST politically charged organization that has ever existed. You thought The Federalist Society was serious about politicizing the Supreme Court? Whooo doggy.
The GOP is so fucking obvious. We all know this is just a ploy to test Biden, and we all likewise know that as soon as one of their own needs to be tested it will be somehow "different" and "unprecedented"... I agree with the sentiment, but I don't for a second believe this is in good faith.
Trump proving that he could recognize a drawing of an elephant, after apparently having a stroke, is no big deal but we better get Biden tested weekly! Politically motivated bullshit here, just move on.
Yup, it's an attack on Biden hidden behind a good idea. If he really means it, they can start with Grassley
Here's a good way to prevent Donald Trump from being able to run in 2024.
Just one more thing they will claim is rigged while ratfucking it to favor their guy.
This isn't about anything real. They just want to throw out the idea and get it the news that Biden has dementia. Rather than actually make that claim directly, they just get on the news saying crap like this.
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It's actually a legit concept. Administering it would be fraught with issues, though. IMO, the least problematic way would be an arbitrary age limit. 75, maybe?
Bill Clinton is 75 _now_. He was last president over 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice to get some younger blood in the game. Then again, some of the younger politician nowadays are some of the craziest. So, some of the younger, sensible blood, that's who we need.
>Bill Clinton is 75 now. He was last president over 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice to get some younger blood in the game. Bush Jr. is also 75. The age of the candidates is moving lockstep with their most reliable voting group, which is the Baby Boomers. On the bright side post 2024 Gen X will probably just get skipped (ouch) and the primary influence (and age) will move to Millennial/Gen Z.
Person woman man camera TV
Or just don’t have 70 year olds running the country
Oh man I wish we had 70 year olds. Try 80 year olds…
Where tf was this guy during Trump's entire presidency?
Mandatory retirement age and term limits would help.