Good morning, dear reader. I’d like to start this post by talking briefly about a measure of human health known as one’s BMI, or Body Mass Index. If you’re anything like me, even before Dr. Ronny Jackson’s January 2018 press conference to discuss President Trump’s recent health exam, you had probably heard these letters or phrase in some form or another. My personal exposure to this term originated in a High School health class alongside a calculation of my % body fat. Disregarding the fact that I personally don’t think the BMI is a very good indicator of a person’s health (made up, rather simplistically, of just a person’s height and weight while disregarding muscle mass), the fact remains that it is a valid, medically accepted gauge of generalized health used by professionals in an attempt to categorize different human body types; and who then infer overall health conditions from those classifications.
If you’ve ever heard someone being classified (clinically) as “overweight” or “obese”, odds are that they were placed in these categories by use of BMI classifications.
Why, you may ask, am I delving into this topic? Well, it concerns the aforementioned press conference and the recently announced promotion of Dr. Ronny Jackson to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.
While most in the media that covered this press conference were concerned with the portion of the overall Presidential Physical related to the President’s cognitive aptitude in an attempt to flesh out any truth to accusations of dementia related cognitive decline, my attentions were ensnared on a couple pieces of pro-forma information that were disseminated in a rather “matter of fact” manner; that of the President’s listed height and weight: 6’3″. 239 lbs.
Dr. Ronny Jackson, the President’s personal physician (he has been this, in fact, to both George W. Bush and Barrack Obama), took to the podium and shared these ‘facts’ with the viewing public with a straight face. The reporters on scene seemed rather uninterested in these statistics, choosing instead to focus on President Trump’s ability to properly identify a giraffe (man I wish I was joking). I, however, got hung up on those two seemingly innocuous line items. 6’3″. 239 lbs.
As someone who, at the time of the press briefing, was tracking my exercise and caloric expenditures in an attempt to shed some pesky holiday pounds, I had very recently used a standard BMI calculator, such as the one that can be found here, to ascertain my own Body Mass Index. Although the listed stats regarding Trump’s height and weight seemed harmless upon first hearing them, I found myself inputting them into a calculator. It returned a value of 29.9.
“Huh.” I thought to myself. Seeming to recall that this was conspicuously close to the value threshold for one to be labeled clinically “obese”. So I looked it up. Sure enough, there it was. For a man listed as 6’3″, a diagnosis of “obesity” (a BMI of 30.0) is arrived at once the person hits 240 pounds.
If you believe in coincidence, these circumstances should be right up your alley. Here is the President’s physician telling the world that Trump is listed as, literally, one pound under the weight where every news outlet talking-head-pundit and late night comedian everywhere would be within their rights/ability to call Trump “clinically obese” by a universally accepted medical metric (albeit, again, not a fantastic one).
For me, this suspended belief. I, frankly, did not buy it. For reference, here’s a link to a site called MyBodyGalleryForMen.com where you can see the physique of men listed as 6’3″ and 240 lbs. And here is a photo of Trump:
First of all, sorry for making you see that, and secondly, I’ll let you make your own comparison.
Now, for all this, it doesn’t really amount to much in the grand scheme. Sure, it’s “birthed” a satirical construct of the “Girther Movement” (feel free to Google that one of your own time), but when compared to the President being the “subject” of an ongoing criminal probe for obstruction of justice/conspiracy against the United States, Trump goading his doctor into lying about his height and weight to protect his ego is hilarious and infuriating in its own right, but is relatively small-time stuff when compared to him being sued by a porn-star for cheating on his third wife who had just recently given birth (family values!), and the offices of his personal attorney being raided by state police for what appears to be campaign finance law violations (the best people!).
So why am I writing this? What can be brought up that hasn’t already been covered (hilariously, I might add) through extensive meme-ing on Twitter (#girther)? Well, it has to do with Dr. Ronny Jackson and his now infamous January press conference.
You see, despite little experience in dealing with massive bureaucratic entities (which the VA is arguably the most convoluted), Dr. Ronny Jackson was recently picked by Trump to run/serve as the head of the VA. This is less than 4 months after he allegedly lied to the world about Trump’s physical condition. To provide some insight, even Senate Republicans aren’t convinced that the good doctor should be at the helm.
Up until now, we’ve stayed pretty squarely in the realm of facts. The calculations of the BMI are standardized, and the numbers given by Dr. Jackson are official and on the record. He has also been formally put forth as Trump’s pick for the VA head position. This obviously just occurred, about 4 months after the press conference. None of these statements are in dispute.
So, then, here’s where I will feign some conjecture. All of these circumstances, in my opinion, amount to a pretty cut and dry quid pro quo exchange between the President and Dr. Jackson. In this agreement, the doctor purposely owned a nationally televised lie about Trump’s height and weight, and was handsomely rewarded with a powerful position overseeing one of the nation’s largest bureaucracies (~ 360,000 individuals).
Again, it’s my opinion that this represents such a blatant exchange, that it appears that they weren’t even really trying to hide it. Of course, in true Ockham’s Razor fashion, the explanation could very well be as simplistic as Trump needing a new VA head and Dr. Jackson, wearing his naval uniform, just so happened to be the last person Trump saw that day.
The alternative, however, is much more sinister and slimy. Can I prove any illicit exchange explicitly? No more so than pointing out the extremely coincidental timing and circumstances surrounding the press conference and subsequent promotion. So it is left to you, dear reader, to make up your own mind. I propose to you humbly, two mutually exclusive possibilities. Which seems more likely?
Scenario A): President Trump does indeed weigh just 239 lbs and is 6’3″ (despite pretty blatant photo evidence to the contrary), and, so, has conveniently snuck juuuust under the literal classification of “clinically obese”. Dr. Jackson is a veteran (obviously not up for debate, he was a Rear Admiral), and, despite his lack of managerial experience, was at least not a preposterous choice to head the VA.
OR
Scenario B): That Trump who, arguably, is the literal personified embodiment of narcissistic personality disorder, and who has a notoriously thin skin, realized that, upon hearing a weight of anything over 239, reporters would eventually (if not literally on the spot with their smart phones) calculate that he is clinically obese, and that the thought of what would surely be merciless ridicule was just too much for his ego to take. So, knowing the sheer avalanche of mockery with accompanying pictures of him golfing that was sure to be coming his way, he worked out a deal with his physician where, in exchange for owning a televised lie to the American people, said physician would be owed a favor by the POTUS, and would be handsomely rewarded for his ruse. Maybe it wasn’t even as sinister as that. Maybe Trump simply pleaded with Jackson to fudge the numbers enough to avoid the “obese” label, and Jackson felt sorry enough for Trump that he agreed. The results, nonetheless, remain the same. One hand, washing the other.
Personally, I’m a “Scenario B” guy, myself. You’re more than welcome to draw your own conclusions. For the moment though, we’re, all of us, left yet again at the bottom of a pit to stare up at the ever shrinking pinhole of light that used to represent American dignity. Will Dr. Jackson be the new DeVos, or will he attempt to fly incompetently under the radar like Rick Perry? I guess only time will tell. Besides, it’s “f5 o’clock” somewhere and another Infrastructure Week waits just around the corner…
jaycockblog 