Donald Trump Has Finally Taken a Real Dementia Test. Results: FAIL!



OK that might seem a bit dramatic but in point of fact is true. I honestly did not think I would see it in the time I have remaining but there it is. And here he went. And here we are.

Back what feels like a hundred years ago, Trump trotted out his physician who proclaimed that Donald Trump didn't have dementia because he passed the what is known as a MoCA test. This is the stupid little test every physician-wannabe-neurologist gives you in the office, takes less than 5 minutes and, ask any actual dementia patient out there, completely worthless. As any dementia patient will tell you: if you are bad enough to fail the MoCA test, you are bad enough not to need a test in the first place.

One primary problem with the standard test is that it in no way stresses the executive function, one of the more debilitating things to lose. When taken in a sterile, quiet environment, anyone could pass the MoCA, I could ace it and I HAVE dementia, so the fact that Trump passed that one just exactly when he needed to, that implied the test was conducted under such optimal conditions as not to even be a test in the first place. Like I said, I have dementia and under the right circumstances I could pass it as well....and I also know that under equally right circumstances, my dementia would get people killed.  I have Lewy Body Dementia which runs in cycles or phases throughout each day. Imagine being normal most of the time but 2-3 hours a day you have Alzheimer Disease...then you are fine for a while and then unexpectedly WHAM you have AD for a while again. On the outside, you look and seem like you always have; inside, your marbles are quite literally scrambled.  Time goes spinning wildly by; words, facts, even thoughts become so slippery as to be intermittently lost to you. Physical coordination tends to take a hit in the time as well; in my case it's an after-effect of the Parkinson's part of LBD.  I can seem OK and suddenly its hours later and I am wandering about, without purpose. And then suddenly (or so it seemed) I would be "me" again, firing on almost all cylinders.

I will tell you something else as well: as I know this behavior and how this feels within me, I can see it in damned-near every thing I see Donald Trump doing. The MoCA test he took could have easily be taken within one of these up cycles. Even more likely is the idea that his physician knew damned-well what the deal was and timed the test, as if even that much help was needed. Hell I have had the nurse put her thumb on the scales by giving me hints which become hit-over-the-head answers. So to say that a passed MoCA test is a promise that Donald Trump, in spite of his bizarre behavior, has no dementia or impaired cognition. Bullshit. As any dementia patient who has watched him, they see it too and its bullshit.

One thing about most dementias in general and LBD in particular: much of how well or badly the diagnosis goes depends on the patient and how open they are to the idea that they might in fact have dementia. They can have it, suspect they have it but self-denial is a powerful thing and as long as the patient fights the idea (hence loved ones, doctors, etc) they can fake for a long time and they can make life so hard for those trying to help them that they give up and just let the crazy fool go. And if those around him had a vested interest in covering it up as they did in the case of Ronald Reagan, no one might know for years. So when he took his MoCA test I just laughed, as if that proved one thing or the other. 

So his dementia remains on display for all to see and far too many to deny. True, the only real test for LBD is an autopsy and as appetizing as that might be in his case, I don't have to wait. I see his executive function, his aphasia, his cognitive lapse, his spatial perception issues, and his dementia could not be more obvious to the most casual observer.  Keep in mind I am literal; dementia is literally an altering of the perceptions, senses and thoughts. That is the core definition of dementia so that includes everything from memory slips and speech issues to executive function and visual perception. I have most if not all of these and I see many of them in Trump as well. In my saner moments it scares the FUCK out of me that nobody seems to know or do anything about it..  I knew if they gave him either the longer 4 hour neuro-psych or the radioactive-injection PET scan it would be obvious something was broken but those results are open to interpretation and in the case of Trump, enough people could be bullshitted into silence "for now" which becomes "forever."

No, any test of dementia Trump faces must be public and the results must be undeniable by the average voter....but how the hell could that possibly happen? I have long suspected Trump would have what I think of as "his underwear on the lawn moment" where the pressure builds and one day on CNN I see him running around the lawn with his underwear on his head.  His dementia is obvious and based on his schedule (executive time my ass) I see they have worked a damned-near pressure-free existence for him so he doesn't pop and start WWIII. Or Nuke Jeff Bezos or the State of Michigan. So they keep his pressure level small and his Yes men and women are good enough so he rarely hears disparaging answers. Oh to be a fly on the wall when that bubble pops.

Anything that over-stressed the frontal cortex, executive function would do it since it can take down everything from memory to speech...  

Ask and the Karma Gods provide I guess: the corona virus pandemic has brought the kind of pressure that cannot be suppressed or disguised. The soda bottle has been shaken and already it has begun to fizz over into public. Only to someone with dementia might something like this make sense:

Trump advises America to inject Lysol on one day and "just kidding' the next.

Only to someone with dementia would this suggestion make sense (and Trump thought it made enough sense to suggest that a doctor carry out testing in the middle of a pandemic killing thousands of Americans) and only to someone with dementia would his excuse seem believable. Trust me America; nobody with dementia is fooled and this is big enough that his handlers can no longer contain his bizarre behavior as "eccentric" or "Trump being Trump."

If that's the case, he is too eccentric to be a functional leader. Being goofy is excusable in many vocations and even an asset in some but not in this one.

Speaking as someone who is living with Lewy Body Dementia, I feel I can speak from a certain position of knowledge and experience. Donald Trump almost certainly had a dementia of some kind and very likely it is Lewy Body Dementia. The truth will only be known way after I am gone as I have little time myself but his dementia is as obvious as the sun coming up tomorrow.

There are two basic parts to dementia, the MCI period and everything else. MCI stands for Mild Cognitive Impairment, which is a euphemism for everything between totally normal and houseplant status (total vegetation). IOW this period includes the path a patient takes from normal to no longer having a functional brain. In my case, the two or three hours of dementia at the beginning are now two or three hours of sanity per day.  Thus even writing this little was a very hard task but sadly one that had to be undertaken. Why I am also voting in this election. In truth, I think nobody with dementia should be allowed to vote; we cannot weigh the issues and so cannot make an informed choice. But since we are still legal, I will use this vote to remove a demented man from the White House before he can kill any more people and further soil our name in the global community.

As for Trump, he is in the middle of his MCI period now and here is what I will leave you with: If he has the more common dementia, we may be no worse off than we are now. If he has LBD, then worry about the day when the pressure (real or imagined") goes on just long enough to trigger what we think of as "plateaus". LBD patients can go along for a good while in a more or less stable state as in, not seeing gradual decline. However what happens to us is something traumatic happens and it screws with us mentally and we have a sudden slide or drop in cognitive ability. This can take days to happen and after the pressure is gone (and only once it is) the recovery begins but heres where we are different; not all comes back, every plateau ends in a negative cognitive gain. So enough pressure on Don and he will lose it and that will be the end of covering for him...but in that brief period of time just after it happens and before his handlers realize they have lost control, Trump can cause alot of damage, alot. 


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