Donald Trump has never figured out that cleverness is not a substitute for skill, and bullshitting not a substitute for achievement. He has no skills or achievements, he manipulates and lies instead and calls that success. That said, the MoCA test he “aced” is probably the first time he’s ever passed an exam without cheating in his life and that’s why he prizes it so. Apparently he thought that passing a cognitive impairment test was an accomplishment of some sort, to the extent that he bragged about it — and challenged Joe Biden to take the same test. Wow, what a gauntlet that is to throw down, “count backwards by seven, Joe.” Unfortunately, the doctor who developed the test is raining on Trump’s parade, saying that it’s supposed to be an easy exam, unless you’re impaired. Market Watch:
While the White House did not release any details of this most recent test, the president did take the MoCA exam in 2018, when he was said to have gotten a perfect score of 30, which has put this particular test in the spotlight. What’s more, during a second Fox News interview aired on Sunday, Chris Wallace told the president that the MoCA is “not the hardest test” and even posted graphics of one of the questions, which asked the test taker to identify drawings of animals. Trump responded by challenging his presumptive Democratic rival Joe Biden to “take a test right now.” What’s more, Trump said that the test questions get harder and that the MoCA exam question that Wallace shared was a “misrepresentation.”
He took it in 2018? We were assuming he took it last November, in 2019, on his midnight run to Walter Reed. Maybe he took it again? Else why would he brag about a test taken over two years ago? Why would he even think of it now?
“This is not an IQ test or the level of how a person is extremely skilled or not,” Nasreddine agreed in a call with MarketWatch. “The test is supposed to help physicians detect early signs of Alzheimer’s, and it became very popular because it was a short test, and very sensitive for early impairment.” […]
Nasreddine explained that each question is related to a different part of the brain. He declined to share a sample test page, as he and his peers are growing increasingly concerned that the test might not be as accurate anymore, because too many elements have been shared online. This allows people to potentially practice the questions to perform better on the exam. In fact, MoCA expressly notes on its website that “it is prohibited to publish the MoCA test and/or instructions and/or a link leading to these in newspaper and magazine articles (including electronic articles).”
Well, everything Trump touches dies, including now the MoCA test, apparently.
I'm a psychologist. I've administered this test (the MOCA) hundreds, if not thousands of times. Let me tell you, bragging about acing this test is the equivalent of bragging that you tied your own shoes this morning. https://t.co/ldzfcq9RGk
— chuuch (@ch000ch) July 19, 2020
I see the president is bragging about “acing” the MoCA again. I’m a doctor, we use this test all the time. You can’t “ace” the MoCA. You either get perfect or we take away your driver’s license.
— Ty Berry (@tberry3) July 19, 2020
Do we even know if Trump drives? Or ever has? If he handles his personal vehicle the way he steers the country, there’s probably a small forest of trees somewhere with cars wrapped around them.
Yeah, my mother "Aced" a cognitive Test too. She had Dementia and she took the test during a Lucid period.
— PGH_MAGICK (@MagickPgh) July 21, 2020
Oh no ?♂️. I’ve been at the doctors with my mother and father the test is a joke. What a idiot trump is thinking he did good.
— Dennis Ferington (@romocowboys) July 20, 2020
The test very simply is to gauge cognitive decline. But there is a joke here, and that is for somebody to brag, “OMG I actually passed a test without cheating for the first time in my life! I can spot an elephant! I can draw a clock! I’ll bet Joe Biden can’t draw a clock!” is a little extreme. But this is the very stable genius who marked up a weather map with a sharpie and suggested drinking bleach. Once you take it in that context, it all makes sense. Just another day in Trump world. As they used to say on the Outer Limits, “please stand by.”
I can’t remember if it’s a dromedary camel or a bactrian camel. Why? The number of humps. And the elephant may be either an African or Asian.
That ended the test for me. .
I remember camels having two humps and I always thought that was cool, as a kid. That way you wouldn’t fall off. It was a natural saddle, or so I thought. I wished horses had them, too. I’m sure Trump’s thought processes began and ended with 1. Could he sell the camel? 2. Eat the camel? 3. Have sex with the camel? And if those were “no” then he lost complete interest.
#3 reminds me of an old joke and since we all could use a little humor sometimes I hope y’all will indulge me:
A young guy decides he’s both a warrior and adventurer and has the funds to fly off and volunteer to become part of the legendary French Foreign Legion. He winds up at his first posting after catching a long ride in the back of a supply truck from a town in the middle of the desert to the outpost. In the middle of the night. Needless to say things weren’t nearly as glamorous or adventurous as he’d imagined it would be. Army type life seldom is. He soon began to miss various elements (conveniences and pleasures) of his old life but being a young guy and not seeing any women for a whole month started getting to him. Bad. Even “bigly” if you want to think of it that way. So he goes to the Sgt. and asks what the guys did when they were horny and needed sex. The Sgt., as only a grizzled old Sgt. can points to the back of the compound and says “take the camel.” Our “hero” is mortified but has learned the hard way not to ask questions of the Sgt. But he’s not about to fuck a camel to satisfy his urges. A week goes by and our guy is feeling the urge more strongly and again asks the Sgt. what to do. The Sgt. replies “I already told you. “Use the camel out back!” Our horny new recruit is crestfallen because he can’t imagine screwing an animal. Another week goes by and he summons his courage one more time to ask the Sgt. for help on getting laid. The Sgt. loses his temper and says “For the last time – USE THE CAMEL!”
At this point our guy is so horny he’s willing to do anything so he waits until the middle of the night and carries a table out back so he can fuck the camel. The sentry sees him and summons the Sgt. who sees our guy going to town at the back of the camel. The Sgt. bellows so loudly the entire camp wakes up and comes running to see what’s going on. The Sgt. screams “Why the hell are you fucking that camel?” Our guy says “But when I asked you what you guys did when you need to get laid you said to use the camel.” To which the Sgt. replied “You fucking idiot – since it’s fifty miles away we use the camel to ride to the whorehouse in the town!”
I for one think Trump is stupid enough to have been the horny idiot in the story.
I doubt that they go for that level of detail. (I think Asian elephants have smaller ears. And Bactrian camels have two humps.)
Yes, Asian elephants do indeed have smaller ears. 🙂
The dromedary has one hump and the bactrian has two. The dromedary is the one most closely associated with Africa and Arabia while the bactrian is found in the Gobi desert and Central Asia. (Easiest way to remember the difference: Dromedary has an “o” like “one”; Bactrian has a “t” like “two.”)
As for the elephant, it’s probably African (African elephants have larger fan-like ears and all adult African elephants have tusks; among Asian elephants, only some males grow them).
or “D” has one hump, and “B” has two.
“Do we even know if Trump drives? Or ever has?”
Well, we have seen him behind the wheel of golf carts . . . .Of course, I don’t know if you really need a valid driver’s license to operate one since they’re used on ostensibly private property (sort of like tractors on farms; a couple of my cousins routinely drove tractors on my uncle’s small farm before they could legally drive a car).
My father drove the garden tractor and other vehicles on his own property, after he quit driving on roads. (Not because of mental incompetence, but because he’d had a stroke that affected his vision and balance.)
Well, he now knows everything one needs to know about driving a big truck rig, he sat in one for a photo op … Toot-toot ! I’d love to see him even get one started in a large empty parking lot, without busting up the starter ring gears and dumping the brakes air would probably scare him too much for his heart along with 5000 Burger King whoppers over the years …
He’s still running on about it today, and it’s getting worse: he’s talking as if *he* asked the *doctors* to give him the test.