Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / A Brief Note About Rear Admiral Jackson’s Press Conference This Afternoon

A Brief Note About Rear Admiral Jackson’s Press Conference This Afternoon

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By now pretty much everyone is aware that Rear Admiral (RADM) Ronny Jackson, the President’s and the White House physician, appeared at the White House Spokesperson’s (almost) daily press conference. He ran through the results of the President’s annual physical from last Friday and then took questions. For almost an hour. I’ve seen that it has been bandied about in some of the comments’ to other posts that RADM Jackson may be lying or fudging or was ordered to lie to protect the President. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the President, such an order would be both illegal and violate RADM Jackson’s professional responsibilities under his licensure as a physician. Had the results been bad they would have had the President invoke his HIPAA rights, cancelled RADM Jackson’s appearance and done what they usually do – brazen their way through it.

Not everything is a conspiracy. And not every piece of news you don’t like is an attempt to purposefully deceive people. A conspiracy would be having the results classified and compartmented as a matter of national security; staffing appropriate, plausible sounding talking points through the intelligence community, and then briefing those. This would also be illegal. Material cannot be classified to prevent personal and/or professional embarrassment. Moreover, the actual results would most likely leak.

The physical itself, as well as the results presented today were overseen and done by a respected physician who is also a flag officer. This isn’t the hastily typed note that Dr. Feelgood, St. Tropez School of Medicine and Mixology – Class of 78, produced for the campaign. It was a legitimate annual medical check up done in a state of the art facility by uniformed and civilian medical and laboratory professionals. While the cognitive exam, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), only takes a few minutes to complete, it is a legitimate exam. It is not, however, a psychological/psychiatric examination.

We all know people with absolutely terrible lifestyle habits that routinely get excellent results on medical tests and live far longer than we’d expect based on diet, dearth of exercise, smoking, and/or drinking. We all also know people who work to keep their diets clean, exercise regularly, minimize their risk factors, and get marginal to poor results on a number of these tests. It is what it is.

What has to be considered and understood, in light of what RADM Jackson briefed today, is that at present there is neither a medical or cognitive explanation for the President’s behavior. The impulsiveness, the recklessness, the pettiness, the strange speech patterns, the hair trigger temper, the poor grammar and syntax, including in the tweets, are simply the President. This is who he is. From my understanding of the reporting by his unauthorized biographers, his ghost writer (Tony Schwartz), his former managers (Barbara Res), this is who the President has always been. And it is who he will continue to be.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

305Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I’m glad the physical and mental health issues have been put to rest. Treat him like an asshole and a fascist and not an ill man.

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    In case anyone is wondering, here are the side effects of propecia:
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  6. 6.

    Chyron HR

    At some point* insisting that anyone who Served is inherently noble and good stops being a compelling argument.

    * Probably around 1970, give or take a year.

  7. 7.

    raven

    Whoa, negligent homicide charges for the two Navy Captains from the ships involved in accidents last year.

    “Washington (CNN)The US Navy announced Tuesday that the former commanding officers of the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain — the ships involved in two deadly 2017 collisions that killed 17 sailors — will face criminal charges including dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide.

    “After careful deliberation, today Adm. Frank Caldwell announced that Uniform Code of Military Justice charges are being preferred against individual service members in relation to the collisions,” a Navy statement said.”

  8. 8.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: Given his reported height and how he appears to look dressed, I was surprised by that. But given he does almost no exercise, he likely has almost no muscle mass and tone. So it’s possible. He’s basically bones, skin, and fat. No beef.

  10. 10.

    PhoenixRising

    @Gin & Tonic: Muscle weighs more than fat, so…sure.

    I’m 5’7″, 168, could carry him out of a burning building. He couldn’t carry me 3 steps (and wouldn’t try).

    The problem isn’t that he’s lying about his height, weight or both.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Chyron HR: I’m not arguing that. I’m stating that it would be illegal to classify his results and provide dummy ones. I am stating that I find it highly unlikely that RADM Jackson would follow the unlawful order to go out and lie about the actual results risking both punishment under UCMJ and serious professional jeopardy as a physician. That’s it.

  15. 15.

    Quinerly

    @raven: To paraphrase my beloved father, “I’m getting out while the getting is good.”? Catch you on an early morning thread. I like pretty pictures in the morning.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    If the good doctor is lying, I hope it comes out and is court martialed. But I’m not going to assume it.

  17. 17.

    Elie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    There is a lot you cannot see or directly test…. I wouldn’t be too relaxed about things if I were him… He wouldn’t be the first man to unexpectedly “wake up dead”, so to speak, one morning. That gut is 100% lard that is also around his heart and laid down in those blood vessels….

  18. 18.

    Arclite

    Material cannot be classified to prevent personal and/or professional embarrassment

    And yet a lot of stuff is classified for this very reason, as Edward Snowden showed us.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: And, apparently, the Chief of Surface Warfare is being booted as well. Whether he faces legal jeopardy I’m not sure.
    https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2018/01/16/us-navy-surface-boss-expected-to-step-down-under-pressure-in-latest-collision-fallout/

    The U.S. Navy’s top surface warfare officer is expected to step down this week under pressure ahead of a forthcoming recommendation that he be relieved, the latest fallout from a string of accidents in the Pacific in 2017 that claimed the lives of 17 sailors at sea.

    Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden is expected to send a letter this week stepping down as the head of Naval Surface Force Pacific, according to sources who spoke to Defense News on condition of anonymity. The head of naval reactors, Adm. James Caldwell, suggested Rowden’s relief as part of a series of recommendations related to the collisions involving the destroyers Fitzgerald and McCain over the summer.

    Caldwell was appointed “consolidated disposition authority” over remaining disciplinary actions stemming from the accidents.

    Rowden has been the head of surface forces since August 2014. His office sets policy and oversees the manning, training and equipping of surface ships in the Navy. He is slated to be relieved by Rear Adm. Richard Brown, who currently led Naval Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee.

  21. 21.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: I was going to say something similar to that. I kept reading how this athlete or that athlete is the same height and weight and doesn’t look like that. Well, when they are 70 and if they have stopped working out, they well may.

    As you point out, there is no medical or cognitive (would not say no mental) reason for his behavior. We still haven’t ruled out psychiatric issues, Nor does this mean that he is mentally fit or competent for the office he now holds. However, he and others will use these results to show that all the stuff in the book about not being mentally competent is untrue.

  22. 22.

    jacy

    yeah, because this administration wouldn’t do anything illegal. not buying it. I wouldn’t trust them if they said the sky was blue. that said, don’t care about the results. he’s evil, and must be thwarted.

  23. 23.

    geg6

    The medical stuff may be totally correct, but I sincerely doubt some of it.

    But your argument about how officers are so upstanding that they wouldn’t be so immoral or violate their oaths as to lie is completely without merit. All we have to do is look at John Kelly and we can see how empty that argument is. Military officers are humans, just like the rest of us. They lie and cheat and steal and are horrible people just as often as any civilian. And don’t get me started on the idea that, somehow, doctors never violate an oath. My family has ample evidence of the bullshit that idea is. Two medical malpractice suits in one family against two completely separate doctors in two completely separate instances (my mom and my sister) would tend to prove my assertion here.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PhoenixRising: Yep. I’m about 5’11 and currently run 275. I’m working on getting back to 250-260 (I’m aiming for the 250). But I lift very large weight. And while I let my diet go to hell last fall for about six weeks, partially because of a sinus infection, I am carrying far more muscle mass than fat. And I don’t look anywhere near as pudgy as the President. More like one of those guys who do the strongman competitions.

  25. 25.

    Rp

    Material could be classified if it was deemed a national security issue. They actually have a pretty good argument for concealing the fact that the potus is dangerously unhealthy.

    But there is no way in hell he’s 239.

  27. 27.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’s basically bones, skin, and fat. No beef.

    Considering what he eats and no exercise those bones might be rather brittle.

    @dmsilev:

    Whoppers and Big Macs don’t count as beef?

    How could they possibly count as beef?

  28. 28.

    Quinerly

    @raven: Yep…you and me…not even Poco….he missed everything. He was having a spa day. Doesn’t even smell like a Poco. John Lennon turned and walked away.

  29. 29.

    MazeDancer

    Appreciating the impossibility a fine officer betrayed his oath, watched the whole presser feeling like I was watching a fine officer betray his oath.

    He spouted superior genes. Trump and Nazi’s favorite claim.

    He gave Trump an inch in height not claimed before. And 239 in weight is absurdity.

    Felt like the Lindsey Graham School of Blackmail meeting Trump’s old pal Dr. Feelgood.. Healthiest Ever!

  36. 36.

    Immanentize

    There is no such thing as “a perfect score” on a mental status test. There is a range and a top score might indicate no impairment at the time of the test But no serious medical professional talks about “a perfect score.”.

    But maybe he just gave him an apgar?

    But I blame the reporters for being so ill equipped to not know the right questions to ask.

    ETA: “Reagan received his last known exam while in office in December 1988. The president’s physician found him to be in “remarkable physical condition.”

    Those Doctors are all as honest as John Wayne.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I do wonder how trump altered his diet in the run up to this physical– what would a month without McDonald’s or a second scoop do?–, but I’m not buying into any conspiracy theories. I can’t be the only one who has two or three relatives who should be dead, or should’ve died long before they finally did.

    And if you don’t: Keith Richards.

  39. 39.

    NobodySpecial

    He’s supposedly two inches taller than me and has a similar figure. I’m at 340. The whole thing seems to me to be a pack of lies.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Melania, Marla, Ivana and Stormy?

    ETA: And let’s say they swapped out Barron’s blood and pee for the old man’s, and Kellyanne put a hex on the BP machine. So much the better, right?

  44. 44.

    Amaranthine RBG

    Yeah, did not understand the purpose of the scores of comments earlier today. Last time I checked, you don’t get impeached for weighing 275 instead of 239. So who gives a crap?

  50. 50.

    Jager

    @raven:

    I know a retired Navy 2 star we talked about this case a few months ago, I asked what he thought, he said, “If a complete investigation finds fault, I’d throw the god damned book at them!”

    He’s a tough old aviator, graduated from the Academy in ’47 flew props, then jets off carriers, fought in Korea and Vietnam, ran the training program in Florida, etc, etc. His worst gig in the Navy, 2 years on the promotion board in the Pentagon.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I heard/saw three or four interviews with Katie Tur about her trump book. Everyone brought up the fact that trump seemed to single her out and remember her early, gave her more attention than her status, when she was still pretty much a stringer, would suggest. No one seemed to want to point out the rather obvious reason.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Damn dude. 275? We are about the same height and I feel bad at the upper 180s.
    I do understand about the lifting and how much muscle weighs though. Used to know a number of marathon and triathlon trainers as well as some power lifters because of my business. If you are lifting a lot you’d have to weight that much.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    Adam, can you explain this comment from the neutral officer doctor?

    “I spend every day in the president’s presence,” Jackson said. “I see him two or three times a day. I’ve had absolutely no concern about his cognitive ability or cognitive function.”

    What?

  64. 64.

    Yarrow

    Unless they have fancy equipment where the result from the scale is automatically recorded into the medical record, then someone has to enter the number for his weight into the box. Maybe that person had a momentary bit of lysdexia and he really weighs 293 or 329. Both of those seem more plausible to me than 239.

  67. 67.

    gene108

    1. Trump and everyone around him lie so much, I am not going to believe a goddam thing they say.
    2. As Betty Cracker (I think) says, Trump is shit-Midas, as in everyone and everything he touches turns to shit, even if they had good reputations before.

    Therefore, I don’t give a damn what RADM, Dr. Ronny Jackson says, because (a) Trump lies about everything and (b) Ronny got the shit-Midas touch last Friday, so he is compromised.

  69. 69.

    Schlemazel

    I am 5’10” and at my worst was 220 pounds. There is no way Dump, who is 6″* taller than me is only 20 pounds heavier. The rear was lying through his teeth. QED
    I do not know why but it is obvious todays release was unadulterated bullshit and yet another norm ripped off by hair furor.

    *Apparently Dump also grew an inch since his last physical if todays bullshit is to be believed.

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    So, now that he’s officially rated as all there in his cognition I think we can all assume that he’s basically just an asshole. An impotent asshole thanks to the drug he takes to vainly keep that weasel pile on his head, and swaggering in order to make up for it, but a racist, misogynistic, intellectually incurious, utterly disgusting and complete asshole. I guess this exam clears that up.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    Did anyone ask if he got a lollipop afterwards? And the follow-up, what flavor?

    The one thing which bothers me from the admittedly little I’ve read or heard about the doctor’s comments are reports of him saying the President is “very healthy and will remain so for the duration of his term,”

    First take is to presume that is very sloppy media paraphrasing of a response talking about a general prognosis, otherwise providing such a direct oracular statement as medical fact is, at the minimum, extremely unprofessional.

  74. 74.

    mai naem mobile

    Its possible he took a diuretic before the physical and lost a bunch of water weight to get to close to 239. Weighing him nekkid probably takes off another 2-3 lbs.It’s not like Jackson read off all his labs so you wouldn’t have known if he was dehydrated. You can get OTC diuretics. Also laxatives. Anorexics do that kind of stuff. Hope Hicks was in the modelling world and would know crap like that. Ivanka too.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: If I feel like it I squat over 300. I can lift a lot of weight on a lot of different exercises if I try. Right now I’m more working on correct form with significant, but not ridiculously (stupid) amount of weight per exercise combined with significant high intensity cardio and a clean diet with one or two reasonable cheats a week. So far I’m getting the results I want. The bloat and fat are starting to go away and my clothes are fitting much more properly. Which, to be honest, is what I really go by instead of weight given the amount of weight I lift. I’m always adding muscle mass, so trying to go buy just how many pounds I am isn’t always a winning formula.

  77. 77.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    One of his main assumptions is that the RADM is an upstanding man because he’s a military officer and so couldn’ t have done anything illegal. That’s clearly bullshit.

    I highly respect Adam’s opinions, but I think the possibility exists that the RADM violated his oath and could have lied if he was all in on MAGA secretly. Of course, I admit I have no proof of this, just suspicions. After all, immigration officers at airports apparently ignored court orders when the first Muslim ban hit, at least temporarily. Humans lie all the time; duty, laws, and the morals of wider society be damned. Military members are no different.

    The Constitution is only is a piece of paper in reality and can be ignored if a critical mass of individuals no longer believe in its principals. That’s the terror of dystopia.

  78. 78.

    sukabi

    @Adam L Silverman: regardless of the “legalities” and or consequences of lying about the results of trumps’ physical, watching the press conference it was clear that Ronny Jackson had some very specific points and language he was told to convey. It was also very clear that he was lying.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @Jager:

    Good to hear from a 90-year-old whose last service experience was about 30 years ago! I’m sure he’s got his finger on the pulse, etc.

    Sorry to be so harsh in my reaction, but I’m getting a whiff of scapegoating from these charges. If they are proven in court, fine. But I think one of the many uncomfortable secrets of our current “best in the world” military is that the fleet is dreadfully undermanned and overextended. Adam probably can address this in more detail. I wouldn’t be surprised if the charges are proved to be true but the back-story implicates the whole rickety structure.

  82. 82.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I saw Sanjay Gupta on CNN after the press conference. He looked uncomfortable repeating the lab values and rather shaken as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just witnessed. He said it was highly unusual and in all the time he’d been the medical guy for CNN he’d never seen anything like it.

    It’s probably a good thing that Trump’s cognition has been certified as excellent. He can’t resign claiming dementia and his “I don’t recall” claims won’t hold as much water.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @Rp:

    Material could be classified if it was deemed a national security issue. They actually have a pretty good argument for concealing the fact that the potus is dangerously unhealthy.

    Yup. And if the doctor was told to lie in the national interest, I doubt he would hesitate for a second.

    Even if the Republicans decided to invoke the 25th Amendment, the public façade would be maintained right up until the moment it was announced.

  84. 84.

    mai naem mobile

    @schrodingers_cat: you could get his weight by weighing the golf cart with and without him. Or somehow get him on some photo op that involves one of his zoom zoom vehicle moments and get him on a vehicle scale.. He’s quite stupid. You could pull it off with him.

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: The reason I asked that is that the apgar is the little test they give newborns. I was trying for a little mental status test joke. APGAR is a 1 to 10 scale and some new parents (especially new first patents) freak out if their babe doesn’t get a 10. Competition starts seconds after the cord is cut….

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    You know he may be a colossal fucking asshole but he doesn’t weight 239kg. That’s 527lbs (I rounded properly).

  91. 91.

    PaulWartenberg

    thing is, the physical evidence of trump’s body doesn’t match the report.

    I’m 6’2″ and pretty much is as bad a shape as trump is… and I’m struggling to keep my weight at 306 pounds.

    there is no goddamn way trump can be 6’3″ with a gut that size and still be 239 pounds. no goddamn way.

  92. 92.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: In my battalion, a year or so before I got there, a soldier was killed when an assistant gunner depressed the tube onto his head – instantly crushing it. The new battalion commander was there the next day. Everyone else in the chain of command received at least a letter of reprimand (meaning that their careers were over).

  94. 94.

    Emma

    Like I sad in another thread, I’m glad of the results. It means there are no excuses. He is a racist, misogynistic ignoramus with the morals of a weasel and the manners of an alligator.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t know. I find it overplayed? The comments of a close friend who is, by his own admission, in Trump’s daily inner circle. Odd, not incredible. Enough to create some skepticism. I guess we will know in 10 years or so.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steeplejack: You are correct. 7th Fleet is the most active Navy Area of Responsibility. One of these captains made a decision to give his most experience navigators and helmspeople an extra half hour of sleep, based on the timeline for beginning the most difficult navigation, so they’d be really fresh. Unfortunately the less experienced 3rd watch guys got in over their heads before the planning estimate said they would.

    As I’ve written on the front page before, we have far too many operational requirements with far too few personnel in far too many areas of responsibility often with far too little or far too old equipment. Eventually something has to give. Ultimately and unfortunately when that happens it usually means that someone gets hurt. The required strategic posture is not sustainable with the ways and means available.

  98. 98.

    Corner Stone

    It’s the height (or weight) of stupidity to believe anything else in a report that factually states Trump is 239lbs.

  103. 103.

    encephalopath

    To get Trump’s true weight, next time Trump wants to do one of those blue collar, factory photo ops, set up the whole stage on top of an industrial scale. Get everything ready to go, then just before Trump walks onto the stage, press tare.

  105. 105.

    barb 2

    Navy brat here — we used to call the Navy Docs — ex-terns. Not even interns. The big talk of the Navy community of dependents was when a really, truly competent Doc showed up at the clinic — that was a rare event.

    Somehow a 70-year-old fart racist is now an inch taller? What’s an inch anyway?

    My guess is that Trump had his double take the physical. It’s probably second nature for Trump to hire someone to his tests.

  106. 106.

    MoxieM

    @geg6: I myself have been told by a specialist (rheumatologist) to my face that my symptoms were [all in my head]. My PCP made a correct Dx not long afterwards. Collecting my record, I saw that the specialist had listed the Dx. But not told me. As an older woman, this kind of behavior by medical professionals is all too familiar; I watched it happen to my mother throughout her declining years.

    (Oh, also, my Ph.D. is in Medical Sociology.)

    Yeah, being an MD in no way guarantees truth-telling. Tuskegee ring a bell, anyone?

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Understand.
    Had an acquaintance who power lifted, I don’t recall exactly how much but it was an amazing amount. He had added 90 lbs to his normal weight to be able to do this. When he stopped he dropped that 90 lbs in a pretty amazing amount of time and went back to his normal weight, somewhere around 180. So to me the numbers are easily in the ballpark. I was always more the guy who could pick up his own weight, you know get out of a chair, bed, off the floor after a night of………….

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:

    One of his main assumptions is that the RADM is an upstanding man because he’s a military officer and so couldn’ t have done anything illegal.

    I saw no such assumption. And having been a military officer, I am as aware as anyone of how fallible military officers can be.

  114. 114.

    guachi

    If Trump is 6′ 3″ he’s 2 inches taller than Obama. But they look the same height to me. And that makes sense considering Trump is listed at 6′ 2″ on his drivers license.

    People shrink as they get older, not grow taller. My dad was two inches taller than me but now we are the same size.

    If Trump is 6′ 3″, he’s not 239 lbs. And if he’s 239 lbs, he’s not 6′ 3″.

  115. 115.

    NotMax

    @barb 2

    All of a piece with insisting Trump Tower is ten stories higher than it really is and installling lying number buttons in the elevators.

  118. 118.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: I didn’t watch any of the press conference. I just happened to see Gupta on CNN. They put up his last year’s cholesterol numbers and this year’s. His cholesterol has gone up. Gupta was comfortable talking about that because it was about factual data: “See, these numbers are higher.” But he was not at all comfortable talking about the press conference and what happened there. He’s been on CNN for years so I have a reasonable idea of how he comes across and he just looked uncomfortable with the whole thing. I was left with the impression that he didn’t think the whole thing was at all normal.

  119. 119.

    Chip Daniels

    Captain Kirk: “Bones, what explains the impulsiveness, the recklessness, the pettiness, the strange speech patterns, the hair trigger temper, the poor grammar and syntax?”

    Bones McCoy: “My diagnosis, Jim? He’s an infantile asshole.”

    Spock: “That would be the logical conclusion.”

  120. 120.

    encephalopath

    Remember when Trump was trying to create a smoke screen about the Russians hacking the DNC and said it could have been some 400 pound person in a basement?

    He went to 400 pounds instead of 300 because Trump himself is a good 320. He was trying to make an insulting remark about weight, so he created a category that did not include himself… 400.

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: Hey, ask your folks, if you got a 10 on your Apgar, maybe you can also update your resume? I was like an eight — but I cracked my Mom’s pelvis (ouch!!) Doomed from birth to prole work….

  122. 122.

    guachi

    @Adam L Silverman: The only kind of person who would be confused by this is the kind of person who thinks all blonde white women look alike.

    They really aren’t that similar. Their facial structure is all different. As is their eyes, nose, mouth, cheekbones and eyebrows.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow:

    I just happened to see Gupta on CNN. They put up his last year’s cholesterol numbers and this year’s. His cholesterol has gone up. Gupta was comfortable talking about that because it was about factual data: “See, these numbers are higher.”

    The Rachel Maddow showed a clip of him asking Jackson, paraphrased: His cholesterol levels are elevated even though he’s taking a statin, he’s at least borderline obese, and doesn’t exercise. How can you call that excellent health?

    other TRMS news: “Bannon will tell all to Meuller”. Wonder how that presidential blood pressure is now.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    So people hoped for the worst regarding Trump’s health, and were disappointed. I have no problem believing that Trump’s health is better than he deserves despite his dreadful eating habits and lack of exercise. Maybe next year’s physical will report Schade that brings Freude to Trump’s haters. But a body weight of 108kg seems suspicious for a man so tall and fat. I was expecting something nearer the 180kg mark.

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: It may be. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Right now we don’t have the latter to back up the assertions of the former.

  130. 130.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: Also, my Dad was a psychologist who was a practicing criminologist. I’m more likely to be able to get my score for the Minnesota Multi-phasic Index

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    The navy was undermanned when I was in. I can’t say that every ship was but a lot of them were. The navy has been trying to cut back on human power for a long time, building ships with a lot less crew. But you need a lot of crew to maintain and use those weapons and a fair number of crew to get those ships to where they need/want to be. Yes today’s turbine powered ships don’t require boiler techs, nor as many people to run the engineering plant, but you still need a reasonable amount. Standing a 6 hr on, 6 hr off watch rotation while under way gets old really fucking fast.
    And it’s not just the navy. Look at the army, people are doing several rotations, the national guard is being assigned to full time offshore duty. They can’t meet the personnel requirements, given all the places they want to be, at the strengths necessary to do all they want to do and yet we pay for F35s and 2 new huge aircraft carriers (which require 5000 in the crew). When will we come to our senses about being the worlds military without understanding anything about the needs of the humans who operate it?

  135. 135.

    Villago Delenda Est

    There is no fucking way on God’s Green Earth that Donald J. Trump weighs 239 pounds. No. This is an outright lie, by someone. He’s not 6’3″, either, he’s 6’1″ at best, because he’s visibly not as tall as Obama, and unlike with Trump, we have little reason to believe Obama lies about his height and weight.

    These numbers were SPECIFICALLY CHOSEN to avoid Donald being classified as “overweight.”

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Given that announcing to the world that the President of the United States is dangerously unhealthy would be detrimental to the security of just about everyone, I think a case could be made that having the rear admiral lie about Trump’s health is in the best interests of the country. It’s not like they were telling the truth about JFK’s health while he was in office since he was being treated for Addison’s disease.

  138. 138.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    Regardless of what anyone thinks of the President, such an order would be both illegal and violate RADM Jackson’s professional responsibilities under his licensure as a physician. Had the results been bad they would have had the President invoke his HIPAA rights, cancelled RADM Jackson’s appearance and done what they usually do – brazen their way through it.

    Not everything is a conspiracy. And not every piece of news you don’t like is an attempt to purposefully deceive people. A conspiracy would be having the results classified and compartmented as a matter of national security; staffing appropriate, plausible sounding talking points through the intelligence community, and then briefing those. This would also be illegal. Material cannot be classified to prevent personal and/or professional embarrassment. Moreover, the actual results would most likely leak.

    Maybe I was a little hasty. But I still don’t see why a high-up individual like Jackson couldn’t simply forge the results, because he’s a true-believer

  141. 141.

    Steeplejack

    Got on the Google and did a little research. Findings are pretty rough, but it looks like muscle “weighs” about 18% more than fat, i.e., one liter of muscle tissue would weigh about that much more than a liter of fatty tissue. Findings rough because no one actually goes around hacking out tissue specimens for testing (that we know of!).

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @guachi: No one is going to be confused. It merely offers more that Trump as a “type” and that his daughter, about whom Trump has made really disturbing comments, fits that type.

  143. 143.

    Corner Stone

    The facts RADM Jackson shared with us today are about as truthful as the story Gen Kelly stated about Congresswoman Wilson.

  144. 144.

    NotMax

    Adam, if you’re still around, could you please release my FYWP’d comment in Chery’s thread above?

    Thanks in advance.

  146. 146.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Trump has bad eating habits, doesn’t exercise much, and is very fat. It may be that Rear-Admiral Dr Jackson’s claim, that Trump’s health is excellent, is the extraordinary one here.

  147. 147.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: now your Dad sounds like a fellow I would like to know. Forensic Psychologists are some of my favorite professional colleagues. I generally really disliked the psychiatrists I had to deal with, but the psychologists we’re smart, compassionate, and dare I say? Evidence based.

  149. 149.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ruckus:

    When will we come to our senses about being the worlds military without understanding anything about the needs of the humans who operate it?

    Ooh, ooh, call on me! I know the answer!

  152. 152.

    Corner Stone

    @zhena gogolia: Having a service title does not imbue any kind of cloak. I watched the presser today. I know what a nervous liar looks like. And I know what a grown man who weighs more than 239lbs looks like.

  156. 156.

    Jager

    @Steeplejack:

    Funny you should say that, the 90 year old talked about the operational tempo and the under-manning of ships and over worked sailors. He’s pretty damn sharp, keeps up on everything. He just gave up his pilots license a couple of years ago, he and his wife (in her mid 80’s) still haul their Airstream all over the west. We met them camping a few years ago, hell of a guy.

  157. 157.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: He wasn’t a forensic psychologist. He was a PhD in developmental and behavioral psych with sub specialties in bio and experimental psych who was a professor, scholar, and researcher of criminology.

  159. 159.

    JaneSays

    Worth noting that RADM Jackson was appointed WH physician by Barack Obama, and he conducted all of Obama’s annual physical exams as well.

  160. 160.

    MomSense

    He doesn’t weigh 239. Sorry but fat not weighing as much as muscle does not explain away his girth. He has also apparently grown an inch in height since his 2012 NY driver’s license. Conveniently the adjusted height and his reported weight make him not quite obese.

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Steeplejack: I believe it related to his heart function, stress tests

    “If you look at the areas where Dr. Jackson focused, on heart disease, which is understandable given the President’s age, basically all of the numbers, the objective numbers that we could compare this year to last year, have become a little worse,” said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent. “He is gone in the wrong direction, and we’re seeing now the impact in these particular tests of his lifestyle.”
    Jackson said Trump’s heart exams, which included a stress test and an echocardiogram, were normal. But pressed by Gupta about calcium levels in Trump’s arteries, Jackson conceded that those, too, were elevated.

    Then there’s this

    Jackson said that during the exam he and Trump discussed his diet, setting a goal of losing 10-15 pounds. The gym facilities in the White House residence will be renovated to Trump’s specifications,
    Jackson said,

    they’re gonna put in TeeVees? one of those barcaloungers without a lever so you have to really put your core to work to recline?

    and first lady Melania Trump will be enlisted to help him stick to the new regimen.

    Oh yeah, I’m sure she wants him to live forever.

  167. 167.

    Bobby Thomson

    He ain’t 6′ 3″ and he ain’t 239 pounds. So, while I am comforted to learn that the doctor’s lies are in fact illegal, they are still lies.

  168. 168.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: Isn’t that exactly what a forensic psychologist is? A Dr. At the intersection of psychology and law — particularly criminology?

    ETA Maybe I am just using an in appropriate title from the criminal law side.

  169. 169.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Steeplejack: Did I ever tell the story of my Bioventus Exogen ultrasonic bone-growth stimulator? Device sized somewhere between a big smartphone and a small tablet, with a cable attached to a transducer, and a strap to tie that transducer to your body. It has one function, and one button – there’s a built-in calendar, to keep track of the days you applied treatment, and one button that turns it on and runs a timer for 20 minutes. Fucking thing is list-priced at $5k. BC/BS “allows” 1/2 price, and covers 80%, as it’s “durable medical equipment.” That definition means you can’t rent one of these. Use it once and you own it. So it may be useful the next time I have a complex fracture. But no, if it’s unused for some unspecified period of time, it disables itself, and you have to have a factory-authorized tech reset it. I’ll assume that’s not free.

    Oh, I looked on eBay, and people are selling these things for like $70. There’s probably less than $5 of materials in it, and about a half-day’s worth of programming. $5,000. Motherfuckers.

  170. 170.

    Calouste

    @Adam L Silverman: Do you think that an officer lying is an extraordinary claim?

    Because then you haven’t paid much attention to Kelly. Or McCain. Or Cotton. Or Graham. Or pretty much every other republican who is an officer.

  171. 171.

    JaneSays

    Sooo… does this mean those who dispute the official report from RADM Jackson will soon be called “girthers”?

  173. 173.

    Steeplejack

    @Ruckus:

    I agree completely. I didn’t get into the Army’s multiple Iraq/​Afghanistan rotations or the Air Force’s chronic shortage of pilots. Just two more examples of what I suspect to be system-wide rot. Discolored spot on the living-room ceiling? Eh, we can paint over it. Just don’t open a hole and reveal the black mold infesting the whole house.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    Not on the fritz, but 2 can play the same game.
    No, to be honest, I just find that all of this is horseshit. It doesn’t really matter if drumpf is lying, we know he is, his lips are moving. It doesn’t matter if the doc is lying because it just doesn’t. I really don’t care what he tells everyone that he weighs, do you think if we asked every person who reads BJ what their weight is, everyone of them would tell the truth? Who cares if he’s 6’2″ or 6’3″? He’s still full of shit, and all that would mean is that he’s got more room for more shit. People hired him to be president specifically because he is a massive fucking racist. And massive fucking racists are fucking liars, they lie to themselves and they lie to everyone else. He lies about his wealth, his beliefs are lies, why shouldn’t his weight or health be a lie?

  178. 178.

    JaneSays

    @Calouste: None of those people are currently military officers – they are all retired from the military. RADM Jackson is still active.

    Of course there have been military officers who have lied.

    But why would the Obama-chosen White House physician do so?

  180. 180.

    magurakurin

    Don’t know this doctor from a stump in the woods. Can’t say if he is lying or not. Don’t even really care. But, considering that Donald fucking Trump quite literally lies about everything, it would be pretty goddamn ironic that the one thing he didn’t lie about was…his weight. Like, doesn’t everyone lie about their weight?

  182. 182.

    Quinerly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: We are packed. Can’t load until the morning (city living, no garage, car might be broken into if loaded tonight). Poco is snoring. Big exhausting spa day! John Lennon emailed you. He has been fooling around with an old HP tablet.? It’s a meow for help. He knows what’s up.

  186. 186.

    Corner Stone

    @JaneSays:

    But why would the Obama-chosen White House physician do so?

    Why would Obama appointed James Comey take the actions he took?

  188. 188.

    Librarian

    If you look at history, the president’s health has been lied about and concealed and hushed up before. Just look at Wilson, FDR and Kennedy, to start with. Why should it be different with Trump?

  189. 189.

    NotMax

    @MomSense

    Units of measurement as developed at the University of Normay med school.

    ;)

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Made me remember the scramble to go back and re-edit the first season of Greatest American Hero to change all mention of or reference to the lead character’s original surname. Was working at a major ad agency at the time and there was panic at the network because advertisers were threatening to pull out if the name wasn’t changed both for the new season and also retroactively.

  190. 190.

    JaneSays

    My take on the mental results simply mean that he doesn’t appear to have dementia. It makes no comment one way or the other about his psychological state.

  194. 194.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Adam L Silverman:

    extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

    The claims that he is 6′ 3″ and 239 pounds, “coincidentally” giving him a BMI of exactly 29.9, just below a diagnosis of obesity, are not just extraordinary but transparent bullshit. Pics or it didn’t happen.

  197. 197.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Immanentize: If it is, it is something that came into being well after my Dad did his degrees. He became a criminologist because he was doing research into juvenile delinquents. When the research funding went away with the guy who ran the research center (he took a deanship at another university), my Dad and his colleagues though about what they’d been doing, realized it was really criminology/criminal justice, and started the first program in this in Florida. They then turned this into a department, then added a masters, and ultimately a PhD program. My Dad was the primary driver of each of those developments.

  200. 200.

    Mnemosyne

    @JaneSays:

    Because publicly announcing to the whole world that Trump is physically and/or mentally unfit to be president is potentially dangerous to the country as a whole. I actually would kind of expect them to lie in this situation and only announce his unfitness when the 25th Amendment action to remove him from office is complete.

    On the other hand, I’m also pretty sure that his “dementia” is typical behavior from a toxic narcissist, which is a personality disorder and not a form of mental illness, so really they’re just lying about him being an unhealthy fat pig.

  201. 201.

    Immanentize

    @Adam L Silverman: I bet your Dad knows a lot of my juvenile defender buddies in Florida. That is a small intersected community.

    ETA. It was people like your father (and maybe your father too) that led the Supreme Court to find unconstitutional both juvenile death penalties and mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences. It was the psychologists and brain researchers who made that happen. Kuddos!

  202. 202.

    J R in WV

    I’m optimistic about the USN referring these officers for UCMJ trial.

    Obviously the watch standers had little to no idea about marine rules of passage, establishing a safe minimum closest approach, the CIC didn’t do their job regarding navigation. Possible the watch standers were all to tired to make sense of things.

    But there should have been at least 4 staff with binoculars one on each side, one forward and one aft, reporting to the bridge about sightings.

    I was a seaman apprentice for my whole hitch, as I declined to strike for rate. I was basically about to be enlisted into the Army or Marines at gunpoint when I enlisted in the Navy as a better option. I did my job, followed orders, reported for duty on time, etc.

    I also stood bridge watch on a ship underway from Charleston SC to New Orleans LA, in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico and in the Straits of Florida. I was not a helmsman nor a lookout, I was the go-for-coffee, wake up the next OOD, guy. But I watched everything. I got the coffee and woke up the next watch standers. And the mouth of the Mississippi and Charleston SC harbor are pretty busy sea lanes.

    I will grant that we did not enter the Mississippi nor Charleston late at night on the midnight watch.

    But still. Ramming into freighters ? Killing sailors asleep in their berths during peacetime? Give me a fuckin’ break!! The whole chain of command failed those guys.

    ETA clean up a little bit.

  203. 203.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Calouste: 1) All of those you’re listing are retired or have resigned their commissions (Cotton). They are not currently serving. 2) Until/unless information leaks demonstrating that Jackson is lying, then we go with Occam’s razor: he reported the results accurately and put a positive spin on it.

    Whether that positive spin is warranted is another matter.

  205. 205.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    step by step, inch by inch

    @ TheDLCC
    BREAKING: @ pattyforsenate has won the special election in SD10 for the Wisconsin Senate, flipping the seat from red to blue. Congratulations, Patty!

  207. 207.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the answer. The doc filed an accurate report to those who matter, and was sent out to fudge at everyone else. As an officer, I was given info that I was not supposed to give to my soldiers. I could ask them to trust me or I could bullshit them.

  208. 208.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    See, that’s what you get for going and having a complex fracture. Personal responsibility! And I suspect that somehow bootstraps should be involved.

  209. 209.

    debbie

    @Mnemosyne:

    Maybe it’s not dementia so much as it is his “Art of the Deal” method in hyperdrive. (Repeat a lie three times and they’ll believe anything you say.) He’s had far, far more to answer for than ever before, so he’s spinning like a demented top just to keep up and is using the only way he knows to do that.

  210. 210.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Gin & Tonic: that’s not a fair comparison because he’s ripped. I’m 5′ 9″ on a good day. Once upon a time I weighed over 235, and had a gut and no muscle mass to speak of. There is no way in hell he is 75 inches or 239 pounds, and those numbers were chosen because they wanted to get his BMI under 30 and knew if they kept his height at 6′ 2″ they would have to go with a weight of 233.

  214. 214.

    Schlemazel

    @Adam L Silverman:
    So, if he said Trump Tower is the tallest building in the world occam’s razor says we have to believe that rather than our own visual experience? Sorry, occam’s razor says Trump lies about everything & get others to lie for him which comports with my personal experience and visual records

  215. 215.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    as pure trolling, I approve of this, especially if it gets around twitter and falls under the oaf’s beady eyes

    More
    “Guardians of the Galaxy” director offers $100k for Trump to be weighed on “accurate scale”

  216. 216.

    Mnemosyne

    All right, I can no longer resist one of my favorite Jane Austen quotes, from Mansfield Park:

    “Certainly, my home at my uncle’s brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat.”

  217. 217.

    Ohio Mom

    I can believe Trump used to be an inch or two or three taller — people lose height as they age — and that he is still claiming those inches. Most of the time my doctors (well, actually their assistants) ask me how tall I am instead of measuring me. Who is to say this approach was not used with Trump?

    I can believe Trump’s genetics have protected him from diabetes and any number of other miscellaneous conditions. Some of us are lucky that way and done of us aren’t.

    But that is it. My government has lied to me for as long as I can remember, and I am used to this.

    I look at the cognitive test and it looks very easy to administer in a way that would provide many gimmes.

  218. 218.

    Adria McDowell

    The whole “he’ll be healthy until the end of time!” thing is what pisses me off the most about this entire thing. What doctor in their right mind claims that a man in his 70s will retain good health into the future? LITERALLY ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, EVEN WITH THE HEALTHIEST OF SENIORS. And then there’s the whole “he has great genes.” That is right out of some bullshit eugenics playbook that Trump himself lives by. What doctor describes their patient in such effusive manner? Gimme a break, guy!

  220. 220.

    jl

    Assuming the doctor’s report is true, it’s still not a good idea to ‘test’ your great top terrific family genes. A certain branch of my family did that. That things looked great, until they didn’t. And then things looked grim indeed. But, Trump will be Trump.

  221. 221.

    Steeplejack

    @Ruckus:

    We can multitask. We can laugh/​rage about his weight lie and still be outraged about all the substantive stuff. What throws the weight lie into such stark relief is that it is so completely empty and unnecessary. Distillation of pure Trump essence.

  222. 222.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    I saw the pics. Those ships turned into the paths or were on a collision course and didn’t react. Both of the DDGs were hit, they did not hit anyone. They were in the wrong places at the wrong time. That is specifically a command issue. Either the wrong command was given or the awareness of command was totally lacking.
    And I agree with you about the the watches but do remember that a lot of ships are undermanned even with manning schedules having been reduced from when we were in.

  225. 225.

    MJS

    @Adria McDowell: Only the bestest, most honest (because he’s a flag officer, you see) doctor in the whole world, that’s the kind of doctor who prattles on about “great genes”.

  226. 226.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: Not that I’m aware of. The reality is they routinely misspell stuff. Including misspelling the British PM’s name so that it was written as her differently spelled namesake who is an adult film star. Though given the news about the President and Stormy Daniels, that may not have been a mistake.

  235. 235.

    OGLiberal

    @JaneSays: National Security. No military doc appointed by the exec branch, regardless of who appointed, will go out and say, “guy’s a fat waste with ADHD and is morbidly obese with high cholesterol levels”. Regardless of who is president, the worst you will hear is “could lose 10 lbs.”, “has hayfever”, “needs to sleep more”, “non-cancerous mole”. I get the reasons for lying from a NatSec perspective, but why go with 239 lbs? Thay number is ludicrous…man is at least 275 or he’s 5′ 10″.

  237. 237.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: just lifted this from Dan Pfeiffer’s twitter feed, so I don’t know the broader circumstances, past results, etc

    Aaron Booth @ ActorAaronBooth
    Here is a breakdown of Democrats’ over performance tonight in all 4 contested special elections:

    SC #HD99: D+13.08%
    WI #AD58: D+24.90%
    WI #SD10: D+27.52%
    IA #HD06: D+20.44%

    That is an average Dem over performance tonight of D+21.49%

    That’s… significant.

  238. 238.

    Mnemosyne

    @OGLiberal:

    I get the reasons for lying from a NatSec perspective, but why go with 239 lbs?

    As someone else pointed out above, 6’3″ and 239 lbs keeps him just barely on the “overweight” side of the BMI scale at 29.9. A BMI of 30 or more is “obese.” So someone is gaming the numbers to keep Trumpsky out of the “obese” category.

  243. 243.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Iowa state House election, flipped

    SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A special election Tuesday will decide who will replace Republican Jim Carlin in the Iowa House.
    Democrat Rita DeJong and Republican Jacob Bossman are competing for the District 6 seat. Carlin vacated it when he won a special election to the state Senate last month.
    The heavily Republican district covers part of Sioux City, the cities of Sergeant Bluff, Bronson and Salix, and some rural areas in northern and southern Woodbury County.
    Bossman lost his previous bid for District 6 post in 2016. It’s DeJong’s first run for elective office.

  244. 244.

    Steeplejack

    @Ohio Mom:

    Most of the time my doctors (well, actually their assistants) ask me how tall I am instead of measuring me. Who is to say this approach was not used with Trump?

    Because Trump’s height has gone up. He used to be 6'2"—I think that’s on his 2012 driver’s license—but 6'3" magically appeared after Dr. Feelgood’s exam a year or so ago, probably for the reason that others here have mentioned: as one factor in jiggering his BMI so that he wouldn’t hit “obese.”

  245. 245.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: It was a typed release with “Ronnie Jackson” instead of the correct “Ronny Jackson” typed at the end. They spelled Norway and Namibia wrong. Like I said they spelled Theresa May’s name wrong. They’ve spelled other world leaders’ names wrong. There are a lot of typos and spelling errors in the stuff the White House puts out.

  247. 247.

    Cacti

    Sorry Adam, but when the doctor was “joking” that Trump could “live to be 200”, it felt a piece with the “it was the biggest audience in history, period” “Bowling Green massacre,” Soviet Politburo/post truth era of politics we’ve entered into.

    I trust no one associated with “Dear Leader”.

  250. 250.

    JR

    Honestly the speculation re: the president’s mental health was always a dumb fucking red herring to begin with.

    He’s a piece of shit because he’s a piece of shit. Let’s not hand wave it away on account of dementia.

  255. 255.

    Steeplejack

    LOL. Lawrence O’Donnell is playing clips from Admiral Jackson’s presser, and someone asked him if they checked El Presidente for bone spurs. Well played, unknown blond lady journalist.

  260. 260.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, I didn’t see the Jackson presser live, I’m just now seeing the snippets that O’Donnell is playing, but, yeah, Jackson comes off as sort of a stammering, defensive idiot. I can see why his findings were met with, uh, skepticism.

  262. 262.

    chopper

    @OGLiberal:

    well honestly he’s actually 6’2″ when he stands up straight, but that never happens. seen his shitty posture? he’s practically a hunchback.

  265. 265.

    John

    @Adam L Silverman:

    …he likely has almost no muscle mass and tone. So it’s possible. He’s basically bones, skin, and fat. No beef.

    Nah, still calling bullshit. I’m 6’5″ and have a slimmer build than Trump. I weigh 280lbs. Not a chance that Trump is 40lbs lighter than me. Not a chance.

  266. 266.

    Tehanu

    @jacy:

    I wouldn’t trust them if they said the sky was blue. that said, don’t care about the results. he’s evil, and must be thwarted.

    I agree. It’s actually worse than if he were suffering from dementia, as Adam points out. This is who he IS and always has been: an asshole.

    @StringOnAStick:

    I think we can all assume that he’s basically just an asshole. An impotent asshole thanks to the drug he takes to vainly keep that weasel pile on his head, and swaggering in order to make up for it, but a racist, misogynistic, intellectually incurious, utterly disgusting and complete asshole. I guess this exam clears that up.

    So, great minds, etc. …

  267. 267.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steeplejack: I watched the whole thing live. The impression I came away with is he was unprepared and did not expect the essential hostility from the press corps to any and all of the information he provided. It is very clear that the press corps has decided that they’re not going to trust anything said by anyone who stands at that podium. I think this is a good sign. Even as I don’t think he falsified the results. Just put as positive spin on them as possible.

  268. 268.

    John

    I am willing to believe that he’s not suffering from dementia. I believe he really is just a stupid asshole.

  270. 270.

    Vhh

    @Schlemazel: I am 6′ 1″, 225-230, wear 36 waist skinny jeans, and work out (not as much as i want, having a real job is like that) and I don’t have a pregnancy belly like Trump. I consider I need to get down to 200. My father just died at 92, he went from active to dead in just a few months. Mother still alive at 91. I think Trump’s stats were juked. Career military follow orders. Flynn is a general, and he was looking to do all sorts of stuff to cozy up to Putin and Erdogan.

  272. 272.

    Vhh

    @Schlemazel: I am 6′ 1″, 225-230, wear 36 waist skinny jeans, and work out (not as much as i want, having a real job is like that) and I don’t have a pregnancy belly like Trump. I consider I need to get down to 200. My father just died at 92, he went from active to dead in just a few months. Mother still alive at 91. I think Trump’s stats were juked. Career military follow orders. Flynn is a general, and he was looking to do all sorts of stuff to cozy up to Putin and [email protected]OGLiberal: Elevator heels?

  275. 275.

    Vhh

    @John: Trump just nuked his potential Pres Ronnie Alzheimer defense. He could have used health to dodge the Mueller artillery. Dumbass, ignoramus or both.

  276. 276.

    Steeplejack

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I agree. I don’t think he lied. It seems to be more a combination of VIP patient, concern about violating privacy, putting the best spin on things and, as you said, being unprepared for the intense and sometimes adversarial approach from the press. Maybe if he had watched five minutes of any Possum Queen presser he would have realized it was going to be a “tough room.”

  277. 277.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cacti: You would be surprised how many people don’t actual live or die following campaign politics such as dodged the draft by claiming bone spurs. Just because we’re political junkies doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Including senior military officers.

  279. 279.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steeplejack: In many ways it was the most competent briefing from that podium. In other ways it was like watching a deer in the headlights. A lot of these guys are actually quite introverted. They can brief. They can answer questions. But they don’t like to. I once watched a brigade combat team commander, really sharp guy, try to chew out a room full of people. He talked to his feet, mumbled, and kind of skirted around the issue. This is why you have senior NCOs.

  281. 281.

    Calouste

    @Adam L Silverman: Considering that we have had 360 days of transparent lies in the White House press room, starting with the inauguration crowds, Occam’s razor is that they lied again, not that they suddenly started telling the truth.

    I value your posts and comments here, but you have a blind spot the size of Jupiter where it comes to the honesty or more specifically, the lack thereof, of military folks.

  282. 282.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    Yes, yes it was. A number of navy ships in that size range were/are? named after traitors from that war. But it’s been cut up into scrap long ago and no ships are named after him at this time. Given our racist head of the federal government I’m not holding my breath that more ships won’t be named after traitors.

  283. 283.

    Cacti

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You would be surprised how many people don’t actual live or die following campaign politics such as dodged the draft by claiming bone spurs. Just because we’re political junkies doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Including senior military officers.

    Uh huh. An Admiral, appointed by a President, confirmed by the Senate, and who keeps close contact with White House probably doesn’t know any more than your average Tom, Dick, or Harry about the machinations of Washington.

    Reaching Adam.

  284. 284.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Calouste: Actually I don’t. I’ve watched general officers lie to each other. I’ve watched senior officer lie to each other. I’ve watched junior officers lie to each other. I’ve watched NCOs of all ranks lie to each other. But not everything is a conspiracy. And not everything you disagree with or don’t want to hear is untrue.

  285. 285.

    Corner Stone

    @Calouste:

    I value your posts and comments here, but you have a blind spot the size of Jupiter where it comes to the honesty or more specifically, the lack thereof, of military folks.

    Jupiter seems a mite small. IMO

  288. 288.

    Gelfling 545

    @Steeplejack: The height on my driver’s license doesn’t bear any but the most casual resemblance to reality. I don’t think my actual height has been measured since I was in high school and the info on the license was based roughly on that. It’s always been a guess and the info hasn’t been updated in years. You just send the money and they renew as is.

  289. 289.

    eemom

    You would be surprised how many people don’t actual live or die following campaign politics such as dodged the draft by claiming bone spurs. Just because we’re political junkies doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Including senior military officers.

    I love this. Reminds me of a mansplaining ex-boyfriend who jumped on the “poor oppressed white guys who voted for trump cuz the Dems dissed them” bandwagon last year. I talked about the willful ignorance of such people, and his response was, so what? You’re not interested in football; they’re not interested in politics.

  290. 290.

    SgrAstar

    @Immanentize: did you see the test? It’s linked to one of the articles about it, online. It does indeed allow for a “perfect” score of 30, ie a no-errors result. The test is so simple a 6 yr old could pass it. Srsly! sample question: Name the three animals illustrated here: 1. (Rhinoceros); 2. (Camel); 3. (Elephant).

  292. 292.

    tychay

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s not how Occam’s Razor works. Not in the least.

    If anything given that Trump and everyone around him have been caught lying, medical reports of previous presidents have been doctored, it seems you are the one trying to figure out how many flag officers can dance on the head of a pin, not the commenters.

  293. 293.

    Mnemosyne

    IMO, here’s the bottom line:

    It’s certainly possible that Adm. Jackson is telling the truth about everything but Trump’s weight, but the fact that he would be willing to lie about something so obvious is what puts his honesty about everything else into question.

    Once you start down the road of telling lies or stretching the truth to help out a toxic narcissist, the road never ends, and they will demand more and more.

  294. 294.

    tychay

    @Mnemosyne: I agree with the above ?. Most of us can understand how difficult it is to be sure about his cholesterol, or passing a basic cognitive functions test, etc. we can even understand how unfair it is to compare a 6’3” 239 lb athlete to Trump or understand how a otherwise fit and muscular person can have MORE weight than expected, But notwithstanding All that, the height and weight thing is so obviously a lie, it calls into question the entire report.

  295. 295.

    Aleta

    Leaving aside his intentions, it would be surprising if the Tr administration had not tried to tell him what they expected from him. That kind of pressure from the WH can affect a presentation. Decisions, too. (The Challenger, for example.) And doctors, like scientists and everyone else, have implicit and cognitive biases and susceptibilities that affect what they disregard, what they prioritize.

  296. 296.

    Captain Oblivious

    Just because he’s a doctor and has a lot of metal on his collar doesn’t mean he isn’t just another lying right-wing douche bag falling on his sword for the commander in chief. The military is full of these creeps.

    He lied about Trump’s height.
    He lied about Trump’s weight.
    He’s lying about the score on the test.

    That jackal Kelly, another right-wing military creep, made sure to get a “White House doctor” who knows the rules. That’s how this fascist cabal operates. There’s no way they were ever going to let Trump be examined by someone who might actually declare Dear Leader less than perfect.

  298. 298.

    AxelFoley

    @Adam L Silverman:

    @Chyron HR: I’m not arguing that. I’m stating that it would be illegal to classify his results and provide dummy ones. I am stating that I find it highly unlikely that RADM Jackson would follow the unlawful order to go out and lie about the actual results risking both punishment under UCMJ and serious professional jeopardy as a physician. That’s it.

    Everything AND everyone this administration touches turns to shit. I can’t say for certain that RADM Jackson is lying, and thus risking punishment under UCMJ, but I wouldn’t doubt it. Others have thrown away their reputations and careers to keep Trump happy.

    I mean, there’s NO fucking way Trump only weighs 239 lbs. That’s bullshit.

  299. 299.

    AxelFoley

    @gene108:

    1. Trump and everyone around him lie so much, I am not going to believe a goddam thing they say.
    2. As Betty Cracker (I think) says, Trump is shit-Midas, as in everyone and everything he touches turns to shit, even if they had good reputations before.

    Therefore, I don’t give a damn what RADM, Dr. Ronny Jackson says, because (a) Trump lies about everything and (b) Ronny got the shit-Midas touch last Friday, so he is compromised.

    Exactly. Ex-fucking-actly.

  300. 300.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ve watched general officers lie to each other. I’ve watched senior officer lie to each other. I’ve watched junior officers lie to each other. I’ve watched NCOs of all ranks lie to each other. But not everything is a conspiracy. And not everything you disagree with or don’t want to hear is untrue.

    On the other hand, the Pentagon Papers, My Lai, and Jessica Lynch established that conspiracies do exist and the DOD will lie like a rug. Your stubborn insistence that no one in the military could be lying about facts that are plain to anyone capable of objectivity is concerning.

  301. 301.

    Stardus614

    @Adam L Silverman: A personal loyalty oath to Trump and the promise of a pardon might have been enough to make Dr. Johnson lie. That is certainly more plausible than the report he offered. The medical parameters he admitted to are *not* excellent health and 239 pounds is simply unbelievable. Trump’s cursory exam last year reported him as 6’3’ and 239 pounds, which we all thought was manipulated data to make him an inch taller than the obesity threshold, since he is 6’2” on his driver’s license. It wasn’t believed then, and asking us to believe that he didn’t gain any weight over the last year is simply insulting. Believe your eyes.

  303. 303.

    J R in WV

    @Ruckus:

    Hey Ruckus, I was on AS-16 Howard W Gilmore out of Key West. We put into Charleston Naval Armory to offload things that explode prior to our major overhaul yard period in Mobile AL and Pascagoula LA at the then Litton-Ingalls yards in ’72. The proud tender of the last diesel squadron in the USN, at least so far. In fact the yard overhaul was to prep the poor old (1942) girl to tend fast attack nukes in the Med for the rest of her life.

    I was a SA bosuns mate the whole hitch, and enjoyed the work mostly. I helped run WW II era heavy cranes moving heavy cargo on and off the ship. Light cranes to move torpedoes on and off the ship. Paint and swab the deck.

    Back then Key West was a wonderful place, like the songs of Jimmy Buffet, who was singing for tips and drinks in the bar at the time, with Jerry Jeff Walker and other accomplished musicians, less well known. Old Cubanos, Conchs who were the descendents of the original old Torie pirates who settled there after being run out of Bermuda for being too rough as pirates. And shrimpers a big fleet of shrimp boats. Only 3 or 4 hotels, no cruise ships, the Navy had the only deep water dockage.

    We had a nice apartment on Duval Street near the western Mallory Square for $80/month – that house is historical or it would have been torn down for hotel space, as it was it was totally commercialized by the time we visited Key West in September of 2014 or so.

    I often wondered what it would be like on a small destroyer with water coming over the forecastle all the time. We got waves over the forecastle sometimes in heavy swell weather on the Gilmore and it was a big ship.

    We learned to snorkel and I learned to dive a little, out on the 7 mile reef on the straits side of the keys. We could camp on little islands west of the key, towards the park at Fort Jefferson. Sometimes that went well, some of the islands had bugs that came out as sunset, not so good. It was a fabulous place to be stationed back then. Like South Pacific plus a highway to Miami. Where we went only once.

  304. 304.

    Ryan

    The Justice department is apparently investigating Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation. You really think he weighs 239?

  305. 305.

    mere mortal

    The report is a lie and the military man reporting it is a liar.

    They clearly chose 239 because 240 would be obese for a man 6’3″, and they can’t have that.

    They clearly chose 6’3″ because 6’1″ would require a lie of 226.

    That’s everything you need to know about this story. Suggesting the military man was telling the truth is an insult to the obvious.

    Here is Trump standing next to a notable 6’1″ non-liar, with convenient horizontal context.

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