Thursday, July 23, 2020

The Elephant In The Room

Which of these is not an elephant? A) Dumbo B) Babar C) Donald "J is for Jumbo" Trump
If you chose to invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer the question, then you just aced the examination. If, by chance, you believe that the Fifth Amendment secures your right to hand out grenade launchers to our bear friends in the woods, then stick around because we're going cognitive. 
Recently, the "president" has been making a lot of fuss about the test he "aced" at Walter Reed Military Hospital. He bragged about it to on Fox News Sunday to Chris Wallace“That’s an unbelievable thing,” Trump told Wallace that the doctors said to him about his test results. “Rarely does anybody do what you just did.” Again, in case there was any question about the topic, the "president" was letting anyone within the sound of his voice know that the doctors believed his cognitive abilities were unique and rare. 
Which may not be a good thing.
The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is is “designed as a rapid screening instrument for mild cognitive dysfunction. It assesses different cognitive domains: attention and concentration, executive functions, memory, language, visuoconstructional skills, conceptual thinking, calculations, and orientation.” Put less delicately, it is a test that measures decline, not intelligence. Chris Wallace made a point of taking the test before he interviewed the "president." He suggested that spotting the elephant wasn't that big a challenge. 
But this is the world, or more specifically the country, in which we find ourselves. The "president" would like the people whom he governs to know that he can tell the difference between a camel, a lion and an elephant. Don't try and bog him down with discussion about policy or procedure. He knows which one is the elephant. More tests mean more cases. Someday this virus is just going to disappear. Joe Biden should have to take that test. 
Blah. 
Blah. 
Blah. 
No consideration for the dead and dying Americans. No pause to consider alternatives to blunt force "law and order." The bar for POTUS is now low enough that anyone who has visited a zoo or watched The Lion King has what it takes upstairs to be successful in that job. 
And Joe, if you're out there, the answer is: None of them are elephants. That one in the middle is a hipporampitus. 

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