Quote Of The Day
Fake news is nothing but a false assumption taken literally, applied universally, and accepted unilaterally… until someone else makes up our minds for us. -Me
Post#: 096-19 – Words: 1092 – Audio: N/A
Tick-tick-tick-tick….
For the second time, and nearly a week later, I am posting yet another article in its entirety. Inside the last two years I’ve been watching what seemed to me an increase in Trump’s meanderings and word slippages during his speeches. As I’ve indicated from the beginning, Trump’s behavior and mental processes have always been in question.. but recently it’s gotten more profound. Personally I’ve been wondering if this is maybe all about his growing political and legal pressures from all sides. One has to be careful in bringing up things like “mental deficiencies” because one could be easily dismissed as having a distinct bias against the man to the point where one’s presumptions might be called a mental issue in itself.
The author of this article is Micheal D’Antonio, who also authored the book, “Never Enough: Donald Trump and the Pursuit of Success”, and co-authored with Peter Eisner, “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence”. I’ve heard him speak on various cable news outlets and he does come well-read on being a “Trump Whisperer” of sorts. In the end he remains just one of many authors of books that do not shine well about the President.
In this article for CNN’s site he discusses the signs of a person with increasing diminished capacity… which we do not want to see in a President at any time.
It’s not just that President Donald Trump has been spouting nonsense at a greater rate, although he is. What’s new is that his false statements are becoming more bizarre. He said this week, for example, that his Bronx-native father was born in Germany. And they are accompanied by other displays of apparent cognitive distress. Among the glaring examples:
- Last month, the President of the United States looked at Apple executive Tim Cook, one of the most important business leaders in the world, and called him Tim Apple.
- A few days earlier at a conservative conference where he literally hugged a flag, Trump ditched his script and rambled for two mostly incoherent hours. He mixed mockery, profanity and grandiosity in a style more suited to a barstool than a podium decorated with the presidential seal.
- In an Oval Office encounter with reporters this week, he repeatedly used the word “oranges” instead of “origins” to demand an investigation into the beginnings of the independent counsel’s probe of Russian influence in the 2016 election.
- Bizarrely, he told a GOP fundraiser audience that “they say” the sound created by energy-producing windmills “causes cancer.”
In any family, a 72-year-old man who spoke this way would be the subject of urgent discussions. Trump’s trouble accessing words, summoning long-term memories, and naming a famous man in front of him could indicate mental deterioration. Add the crazy talk about windmills and cancer, coming from the leader of the free world, and you get a situation that ought to alarm everyone.
This situation is complicated by Trump’s long and deep record of lying to suit his purpose. For decades, he made excessive claims about his wealth and abilities and the ratings for his reality TV show. Fantastic claims became his self-serving stock in trade. As a politician, Trump transferred this deceptive method into the political landscape — call it his lie-scape — and picked up the pace of the falsehoods.
Trump’s record makes it hard to pick out trends. Sometimes he seems to exaggerate and distort for effect. At other moments, it seems he believes the crazy stuff he says. But it is possible to evaluate a public figure’s speech patterns and make objective observations. In 2017, Stat News, the health news website, asked experts in neurolinguistics and cognitive assessment, psychologists and psychiatrists to review his past and recent speech and found evidence of decline from his younger days.
In interviews in the 1980s and ’90s,according to Stat News, Trump “spoke articulately, used sophisticated vocabulary, inserted dependent clauses into his sentences without losing his train of thought, and strung together sentences into a polished paragraph, which — and this is no mean feat — would have scanned just fine in print.”
More recently, noted Stat, “Trump’s vocabulary is simpler. He repeats himself over and over, and lurches from one subject to an unrelated one.” When shown examples of the two Trumps, experts saw symptoms that “can indicate slipping brain function due to normal aging or neurodegenerative disease.”
If Trump were a private citizen, his condition wouldn’t matter to anyone outside a close circle. He would be evaluated, his father’s Alzheimer’s disease might be noted as a red flag, and, one hopes, he would get the help he needs. But Trump is the most powerful person in the world and can do great harm with what he says.
In a flurry of tweets Tuesday, Trump mangled the facts of Puerto Rico’s hurricane recovery effort, suggesting the island has received $91 billion in relief money. (The correct figure is $11.2 billion; $91 billion is how much the federal government may disburse to Puerto Rico over the next two decades). He also planted the canard that somehow mainland farmers are being exploited in the equation. “Cannot continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments, and so little appreciation!” wrote Trump.
The Puerto Rico misstatements are so egregious that one hopes they could be blamed on a mind in decline. The alternative holds that Trump was lying and that he is an intentionally divisive and destructive leader of truly bad character who demonizes one set of constituents to stir resentment among another.
For Americans who are subject to Trump’s rhetoric, the most alarming element may be what it does to us. Leaders and those they lead exist in a dynamic relationship. A president’s words and gestures can both inspire and terrify. The talk coming from this President is frightening, destabilizing and bewildering. We don’t want to think that the man in the Oval Office is unfit, but when he repeatedly shows us the evidence, how can we draw another conclusion?
(See the article HERE.)
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He would be well-advised to stop appearing on TV so much. From much of what we see of him here, he does appear to be going downhill fast. And you see a great deal more of him of course.
That said, he still doesn’t seem to have any credible opposition.
Best wishes, Pete.
Well.. you make a sound point. Yet Trump has been a large and looming personage, contentious to a fault and so much a part of everyday media coverage. We seem to be groping for someone equally as large to be the “Han Solo” to his “Darth Vader” in some great battle. More than likely it will be up to the voter to predominantly use their vote to remove Trump rather than voting who his replacement should be.
Trump is getting desperate and so he doubles down of stupid to convince his minions of his sainthood……as the House plays their legal cards he will get more silly and desperate….his only hope will be Mitch and the Senate to carry his water for him…regardless. chuq
Mitch and the Senate GOP are going to have to decide how they want to handle their own re-elections at some point.
Do you read anything but CNN?
-He didn’t call Tim Cook “Apple”. Tim Cook is the executive officer of Apple and not everyone knows that (unlike, say, Steve Jobs, who is a household name). It was a reference for the audience to know what he was talking about.
-Wind turbines do induce something called VAD (vibroacoustic disease)
From a published medical document (there are many, just look it up)
“Stage III, severe signs (myocardial infarction, stroke, malignancy, epilepsy, and suicide).”
Since he said, during the speech, “you told me that” (not, “they” as reported here) it was most likely mentioned to him right before, by the people in attendance.
-He said “origins” not oranges. Ever hear the “laurel” and “yanny” demo? They’re playing with suggestion here. Once you believe he is saying oranges that is all you can hear
Liz.. you have got to be the chief “Trump whisperer” to know any and all of what he actually means when he screws up. 🙂 Trump said “Tim Apple”. No denying it. How you know what he actually meant is amazing.
Now… vibroacoustic disease.. the “research” that has been done is VERY new and there is nothing (credible) to suggest a universal medical consensus. But nothing in the research suggests any form of cancer (as Trump attempted to again promote fear)… mostly cardio issues if anything at all. There’s is nothing conclusive as to a “safe” distance away from wind turbines since distance from the source of the sound makes a huge difference. The State of Indian Health Dept. has an interesting sound level table… a window air conditioner causes more “vibration pressure” than a wind turbine at 350 meters. https://www.in.gov/oed/files/James_Howell_–_Indiana_State_Department_of_Health.pdf
Oranges vs origins? Ohh.. the “laurel & yanny” effect. Yes.. Conservatives hear “origins” and non-Trumpers hear “oranges”.
He paused before he said, “Apple”. But I’m sure you’re right. He couldn’t be referring to the company the guy was in charge of, he must’ve been calling him a fruit. It’s really a reach to think otherwise.
Over at Citizen Tom’s you asserted that I watched too much FOX news.
This when I not only don’t watch FOX, I’ve never even cited a FOX news piece.
Yet everything you cite comes from CNN or affiliates.
Per VAD, how new is “new”? The medical journal I cited is from 1999.
Sorry Doug, I tried.
I really don’t think I can talk to you. You should change the name of this blog.
Well, a couple things.. you can interpret Trump any way you wish,… as we all can. I did say in my “CNN post” here that what the author was reporting rather confirms my personal suspicions in seeing Trump react under the worsening pressure from “not getting his way” and the impending investigations. It’s been my blog theme from the get-go that Trump has behavioral issues. So this psych business is nothing knew and I posted the CNN source to support MY thoughts and not to stand in agreement to something they were supporting. But I have cited CNN to make a point from time to time. I occasionally watch FOX & Friends until I can’t stand their lock-step affirmations of everything Trump as being “good”. They don’t have anything worth citing. In fact, I don’t care one bit about some nonsense “CNN vs. FOX” debate. That’s never been my argument.
Yes.. early on I did presume you were the average Conservative who followed FOX. My error if you do/did not. But it seems very apparent you’re not fond of CNN.. and/or likely hate all “liberally-biased media” just because. So.. I dunno where you get your source news.
The “turbine disease” research I saw from various places were dated in the 2000’s.. the newest from my simple sampling was 2006. The point was not to establish a one-upmanship thing on research but to present some context. In other words… in a more simpler example… your mention and description of the turbine disease is something FOX might have brought up to support Trump. I provided some fact-check context, more what CNN would have done. The entire point is that this “disease” needs far more research for anything to be credible. I should thank you, though.. I never heard of the suspected condition until you mentioned it. I’m a ham radio guy so I try to keep tabs on organic responses to electro-magnetic radiation and cellular degeneration research to sound wave. This one missed me.
Regarding your valiant attempt to tolerate what I hand out on my blog here, that is entirely up to you… but nonetheless I respect your attempt to do so, and welcome your remarks in the dialog. My little blog here is not here to convince people. That will never happen. I am providing MY interpretation of “things” as I interpret those things as they occur. I am trying to provide an alternative opinion and if someone cares to critical think that to form their own thoughts and opinions so be it. I will cite sources that I am comfortable in citing to support my own position, and I can critical think my way through the rest. I don’t march to the music of another. I can separate talking-head commentary from actual news reporting. I am obviously not a media cynic because I can filter. Conversely, I go to Conservative blogs to try and understand the mindset and get more alternative thoughts to my own. In fact, one might use the example.. that my “FOX News” is when I follow Citizen Tom, InsanityBytes, Salvageable, Tricia’s blog, etc.
“I really don’t think I can talk to you.”
Yeah.. sadly I all too well understand your remark here, Liz. What bothers me is that there’s “Trump, the man” and “Trump’s agenda”… and both. I can totally understand favoring Trump’s agenda… but this incessant affirmation and acceptance of “Trump, the man” just mystifies me for all the reasons I cite on my blog.
Why don’t you start your own blog? I’d be the first one to follow you. I’d also be the first one to be totally frustrated with what you’d say in it. 🙂