What are the People Around Trump Thinking?

I spent twenty-three years as a registered nurse and had occasion to administer the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to patients who were residents in the long-term care facility where I was employed.  The various tasks assigned to the patient are part of a very rudimentary screening tool designed to determine if there is a need for more specialized evaluations and scans for diagnosis and treatment.  The questions are therefore not meant to be ‘hard’, as they do not require any actual knowledge of anything, only the ability to follow directions and remember things someone just told you to remember.

Trump challenged Fox’s Chris Wallace to take the MoCA, particularly the last 5 questions.  Wallace recalled the one calling for “counting backwards by 7 from 100”, and Trump repeated his claims that the person administering the test was impressed by Trump’s ability to answer those questions correctly.  Wallace is heard saying “93…” while Trump speaks over him as he usually does.  The point is the last portion of the test after the animal drawing identification section are:

• Memory (No points here, see below)
  • Read subject list of 5 words (face, velvet, church, daisy, red), have subject repeat list twice to reinforce retention.  Do recall test in 5 minutes (see Delayed Recall below)
• Attention (6 points total)
  • Read list of digits at 1 per second (0-2/2)
    • (2 1 8 5 4) – subject to repeat in forward order (0-1/1)
    • (7 4 2) – subject to repeat in reverse order (0-1/1)
• Read list of letters.  Subject must tap hand at each letter “A”. (0-1/1, no points for ≥ 2 errors)
• F B A C M N A A J K L B A F A K D E A A A A J A M O F A A B
• Serial 7 subtraction (4 or 5 subtractions) starting at 100 (4 or 5 correct = 3/3, 2 or 3 correct = 2/3, 1 correct = 1/3, 0 correct = 0/3)
• 93           86           79           72           65
• Language (3 points total)
  • Repeat the following:  “I only know that John is the one to help today.” (0-1/2)  “The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room.” (0-1/2)
  • Name maximum number of words in one minute that begin with the letter “F”. (1 – 10 words = 0/1, ≥ 11 words = 1/1)
• Abstraction (2 points total)
  • Identify the similarity between two words (i.e., broccoli – asparagus = vegetable): 
    • train – bicycle (0-1/1)
    • watch – ruler (0-1/1)
• Delayed Recall  (5 points total)
  • Recall words from Memory above (face-velvet-church-daisy-red)
    • With no cue (0-1/5)
    • With category cue (0/5)
    • With multiple-choice cue (0/5)
• Orientation (6 points total)
  • Date (0-1/1)
  • Month (0-1/1)
  • Year (0-1/1)
  • Day (0-1/1)
  • Place (0-1/1)
  • City (0-1/1)

I’ve had issues with the day and date since I stopped working; after all, if you don’t have to be anywhere in particular ever, what difference is it what day or date it is?  I have an iPhone that reminds me when I do have somewhere to be, and I’ve gotten lazy about actually knowing without looking at my phone the day or date.  It’s the same with phone numbers – I can still recite from heart ALL of my previous telephone numbers, and I used to be able to call anyone I knew simply by dialing their numbers from memory, but not anymore.  In fact, the only telephone number besides my own that I can dial without looking it up first is my daughter’s cell which I had to dial into the phones I used at work.  Now, I only use my cellphone and so never actually punch in the numbers anymore, and I know that it’s no longer necessary for me to remember them, so that information is now lost to me.  It seems that the information I no longer keep top of mind is that which is easiest to outsource to my technology, and I think that makes sense.  Also, anytime I’m being checked by medical professionals for my cognitive status, I’m there because I have an appointment, so have had the present day/date information brought to my attention and have no trouble remembering it if asked.

Anyway, my point in bringing all this up is, once again…

What is wrong with the people around Trump who are willing to let him display his rank incompetence and questionable cognitive status on camera?  Are they also delusional?  Doesn’t anyone in Trump’s circle of suck-ups have the insight to acknowledge that this ship is going down in a big hurry, taking all of them with it?  Or are they so craven in their greed that they intend to hold on to power until they are forced out in January when Biden is inaugurated?  How can any of these cult followers claim to care at all about the country, its citizens, or our democracy?  Each new breach of the Constitution Trump and Barr perform in full view of the world takes our reputation further into the gutter and our ability to right this mess harder.  Apparently, no one in the Republican Party has any shits left to give about any of the rest of us, especially their own constituents, as they refuse to do what’s best for us all to stop this pandemic.  I’ve said before that thinning the herd of cultists may not be so bad, especially when it’s due to their own stupidity.

Someone who has to keep ‘boasting’ about how well they did on a screening for dementia isn’t showing how smart or cognitively intact they are – they are revealing their massive insecurities in their own mental abilities.  Trump has used misdirection, hyperbole and repetition since he was a child under Fred’s tutelage to force those around him to treat him like the successful real estate tycoon he was convinced by his father he was, despite having copious proof to the contrary.  His tactics are ineffective and outright dangerous, to us as individuals and as a collective democracy, when faced with a pandemic and his own upcoming election.  Trump cannot lie or perseverate away more than 144,000 dead Americans, and his refusal to recognize that nothing he has done while in the White House has earned him another four years of destroying our government and our place in the world at large is yet another example of his inability to function within the reality that face everyone else on the planet. 

Trump’s behavior since he was inaugurated, facilitated by his cadre of sycophants and lackeys, has caused so much damage throughout not just our country, but the entire world, will take generations to roll back.  During his tenure, he has wasted TRILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS on vanity projects and lawsuits, defense of his own illiberal and illogical ‘executive orders’ and of course, by paying outrageous sums of money to his own company by visiting them at every possible chance on our dime. 

Everyone who has in any way supported this lawless administration and executive should find no doors open to them when they are removed from office in January.  No corporate offices should be welcoming any of them into the suites; no institutions of higher education should provide them with the platform to spread their propaganda to impressionable young minds.  The Republican Party as a whole must be firmly and effectively frozen out of all possible opportunities to do anything except make a middle-class income for the rest of their lives, since they have proven themselves completely lacking in the qualities necessary to actually run anything meant to benefit others beyond themselves. 

I have to believe that this is the administration that will finally put to rest the practice of ‘moving on’ and refusing to address the illegal actions of the preceding administration, often one of the opposite political party.  This is not meant to encourage specious, illegitimate ‘investigations’ like those now being sought in the Senate and Barr’s ‘Justice’ Department; rather, it is to hope that those who were responsible for so much of the corruption during the Trump administration will be investigated, tried and convicted of their misdeeds, especially Trump and his family.