McConnell
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I thought he might be in pretty bad shape, but I just read that his wife Elaine Chao left for a trip to China a couple of days before he ended up in the hospital and she didn't feel the need to come back immediately.
Don't know what to think.
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I don’t know. I’m 10 years younger than him. If I had a cardiac event that required a months hospitalization, I’m pretty sure my wife would come to see me.
And we’ve been divorced 20 years…
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So the story is he fell and was also being treated for pneumonia. Why a month long silence? Has his staff no sense of obligation to the people they work for? They published a photo, but what weight does that carry in today's AI climate? It's beyond sad to say it, but photographic evidence no longer carries much weight.
And what about the public emergency services records indicating that an unconscious someone at his address was administered CPR on June 14th and rolled out on a gurney?
There is a story behind this that we aren't being told.
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So the story is he fell and was also being treated for pneumonia. Why a month long silence? Has his staff no sense of obligation to the people they work for? They published a photo, but what weight does that carry in today's AI climate? It's beyond sad to say it, but photographic evidence no longer carries much weight.
And what about the public emergency services records indicating that an unconscious someone at his address was administered CPR on June 14th and rolled out on a gurney?
There is a story behind this that we aren't being told.
Like any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day’s newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. He wore a pink button-up shirt, and his vacant, lipless mouth seemed to form something meant to resemble a smile. Beside him was his wife, the comparatively pert former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, her coiffed hair as stiff as the couple’s determination. In a statement, McConnell said that he had been hospitalized after a fall, and was being treated for pneumonia.
The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn’t available to clear up the matter, couldn’t someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently. The Kentucky senator was missing for weeks, with no word, his office only releasing vague and repetitive acknowledgments that he had been hospitalized. Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest – one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.
It's more than just McConnell:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/15/mitch-mcconnell-hospital-photo-silence
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Like any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day’s newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. He wore a pink button-up shirt, and his vacant, lipless mouth seemed to form something meant to resemble a smile. Beside him was his wife, the comparatively pert former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, her coiffed hair as stiff as the couple’s determination. In a statement, McConnell said that he had been hospitalized after a fall, and was being treated for pneumonia.
The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn’t available to clear up the matter, couldn’t someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently. The Kentucky senator was missing for weeks, with no word, his office only releasing vague and repetitive acknowledgments that he had been hospitalized. Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest – one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.
It's more than just McConnell:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/15/mitch-mcconnell-hospital-photo-silence
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Like any good proof-of-life photo, it featured that day’s newspaper. After a nearly month-long disappearance, when it was clear that he had been rushed to the hospital but not clear why or in what condition, Mitch McConnell broke his silence, as they say in the tabloids, by releasing a photograph of himself sitting upright in a hospital bed. He wore a pink button-up shirt, and his vacant, lipless mouth seemed to form something meant to resemble a smile. Beside him was his wife, the comparatively pert former Trump transportation secretary Elaine Chao, her coiffed hair as stiff as the couple’s determination. In a statement, McConnell said that he had been hospitalized after a fall, and was being treated for pneumonia.
The picture was meant to put an end to the rampant speculation over whether the senator, aged 84, was dead or not. You would think this would be a simple enough question to answer. If the man himself wasn’t available to clear up the matter, couldn’t someone have held two fingers to the inside of his wrist to check for a pulse, or propped a hand mirror under his nose to see if it fogged? No such luck, apparently. The Kentucky senator was missing for weeks, with no word, his office only releasing vague and repetitive acknowledgments that he had been hospitalized. Public emergency services records indicate that paramedics were called to his Washington address on 14 June, where they administered CPR on an unconscious person who was allegedly suffering a cardiac arrest – one whose identity has been withheld. McConnell had been in a Washington DC area hospital ever since.
It's more than just McConnell:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/15/mitch-mcconnell-hospital-photo-silence
@wtg It's a great article. And so true.
But the episode reflects a grim reality of US politics: both that many of our elected leaders are far past the age of their greatest competence and stamina, and also that they are so completely insulated from the consequences of public opinion that they face no risks for staying in jobs that they’re no longer capable of doing. In other words: many American leaders are so old that it is plausible that they could drop dead at any moment, and so unaccountable that it’s not clear anyone would bother to tell us if they did.
But why and how do these people continue to be elected? Is it $$$?
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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Mostly on the lesser-evil principle I suppose.
For example, we all knew Biden was too old, but we didn’t get a choice between Biden and some 52 year old energetic politician with good ideas on how to solve our problems. We got a choice between Biden and Trump.
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@wtg It's a great article. And so true.
But the episode reflects a grim reality of US politics: both that many of our elected leaders are far past the age of their greatest competence and stamina, and also that they are so completely insulated from the consequences of public opinion that they face no risks for staying in jobs that they’re no longer capable of doing. In other words: many American leaders are so old that it is plausible that they could drop dead at any moment, and so unaccountable that it’s not clear anyone would bother to tell us if they did.
But why and how do these people continue to be elected? Is it $$$?
But why and how do these people continue to be elected?
Agree with @jon-nyc regarding the "why elected" answer. But I think the question you are asking is why these folks percolate to the top and become their party's nominee.
Is it $$$?
I think that's the answer. Throw money and other resources at a candidate's campaign, and you can help them get elected to office. Then that makes them beholden to the financial backers and do whatever the backer wants done. Lather, rinse, repeat.
We need campaign finance reform but I'm not holding my breath that it will happen.
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I've been seeing photos of the "proof of life" photo compared with one from a few years back that seem to be a perfect match with questionable photo shop questions - with more youthful appearance than recent photos and and same pose and creases in the shirt... Anyone else seeing those? Wondering why media is sooo willing to believe serial liars..
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I've been seeing photos of the "proof of life" photo compared with one from a few years back that seem to be a perfect match with questionable photo shop questions - with more youthful appearance than recent photos and and same pose and creases in the shirt... Anyone else seeing those? Wondering why media is sooo willing to believe serial liars..
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The thing is, no one in their right mind is going to go mum for a whole month due to a fall and pneumonia. What's the big deal that they couldn't have said so even a whole week after the event? It does not add up.
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The thing is, no one in their right mind is going to go mum for a whole month due to a fall and pneumonia. What's the big deal that they couldn't have said so even a whole week after the event? It does not add up.
@Bernard Oh, I totally agree with you on the McConnell situation, the radio silence for a month . We're definitely not getting the whole story.
As for the photo, I could see it being a real photo of him, not something that's doctored. I'll take it as proof of life, but not proof of competence. The guy in the photo could just be an empty shell. What I want to see is him talking to people in person.
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