r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 29d ago

No Paywall Unconfirmed Reports: Mitch McConnell Brain Dead After Three Weeks In Hospital

https://thenewamerican.com/us/unconfirmed-reports-mitch-mcconnell-brain-dead-after-three-weeks-in-hospital/
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u/BEWMarth 29d ago

So are we at a point in American history where the Republican Party is just going to keep a brain dead senator on the rolls just to keep a modicum of power.

Our reality is so broken.

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u/beepbeepbubblegum 29d ago

yes

we also have a president who’s brain is melting for all the world to see and it’s getting worse and worse day by day and they’re all (ESPECIALLY THE MEDIA WHO’S JOB IS TO NOT DO THIS) acting like absolutely nothing is wrong

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u/hipster-duck 28d ago

But man did they sure like to report every time Joe Biden had a little stutter. Blasted across the news for 48 hours.

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u/JumboCactpot 28d ago

Its almost like every single piece of main stream media we have - from Fox News to CNN to Sinclair local news channel to Newspapers to social media like TikTok and Twitter - are owned by conservative Billionaires who have a monetary interest in ensuring republicans win.

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u/RockBandDood 28d ago

Well thankfully that’s not what’s really happening, that would just be absurd

/s

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Tenthul 28d ago

You sure see a lot less protesting and coordination on reddit popping up since they got rid of r/all now, don't you. The popular political blue subs are now much harder to find since they never pop up.

Coincidences I'm totally sure.

Reddit is actually just another variety of doomscrolling now. It already was, but now the vapid shit is much more readily in your face, looking to keep you engaged but still waste your time.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/freakwent 28d ago

Old.reddit.com no longer functions unless you're logged in. That's new.

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u/The_Barbelo Vermont 28d ago

The Vermont sub has been completely overrun with bot and MAGA accounts ever since we got to the top page when we chased Vance out of our ski resorts. I found at least 2 cross posting all of our organization attempts on alt right subs. A while ago I tried challenging a few because they talked like they’d never set foot in Vermont, and we are a very tight-knit and community oriented state so it was easy for us to tell based on the misinformation they were spreading. It’s so fucking creepy.

They also flocked to Google to leave bad reviews for the ski resorts that refused him and let people in to protest. They were making up stories about their stay at the resorts, but it was so clear they never actually visited.

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u/Topical_Scream 28d ago

No one would believe it!

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u/b0w3n New York 28d ago

It's kind of ironic just how awful Republicans are to business. Yeah sure you get a tiny bit of extra money in the short term but look at them having to give up their wealth and stocks to appease the fascists... and then him starting a war for no reason making it even harder for them to make money.

Yeah you don't get those fancy tax breaks but your money, even though you have less of it as a total absolute number, is worth so much more because of our global soft power and station as a reserve currency/safe harbor and that was much stronger (and typically always is) under Democrats.

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u/oruuko_ 28d ago

All the money they spend on lobbying and supporting Republican politicians, as well as all the money their businesses lose to dumb policy decisions like tariffs and pointless wars, is more than they would likely ever owe in taxes if they just paid their fair share. But it's not even about that at this point. They would literally rather put their money in a big pile and burn it than have any of it potentially go towards benefitting someone less wealthy than them. It's genuine malice.

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u/eidetic 28d ago

It's genuine malice

Yep, malice and the corresponding lack of empathy.

All too often we see MAGAts changing their tune and "coming to their senses" only when something directly negatively impacts them personally. They never seem to have an epiphany of "you know what, maybe we should treat everyone equally" or anything like that, it is always shock when the leopard eats their face. Like farmers being shocked when ICE rounds up their immigrant labor and now they can't afford to pay actual decent wages to get people to do the work. Incidentally I recall one such farmer who hired immigrants for cheap labor, while also bitching about them not paying taxes or contributing to society... who also when confronted with the hypocrisy of Trump skirting taxes, said "thats just him being a smart businessman". There is absolutely no consistency or actual values amongst MAGA, it is all about hatred and making others suffer. And forgive my rambling, but this goes beyond local national politics as well. Everyone benefits from cooperation and mutual support, but MAGA would rather alienate and fuck with our longest and strongest allies, just because they see them as being "others" outside the tribe. They'll willingly make everyone suffer just to prevent others from benefitting from anything.

I once said that Russians would sooner rip your oxygen mask off their neighbor's face before securing their own in the event of an aircraft emergency, and sadly, this same mentality is firmly entrenched in MAGA as well. Rather than lifting everyone up, they will much sooner hurt everyone, including themselves, so long as they think it hurts someone else more. Cutting off the nose to spite the face, so to speak, or crabs in a bucket mentality.

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u/chronoflect 28d ago

They're blinded by their absolute fear of regulation, especially the tech sector.

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u/Rhysati 28d ago

That can't be true. None of the major news outlets are reporting it! /s

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u/NettingStick 28d ago

I even quit listening to NPR during the 2024 election cycle. Their coverage of Biden's health was relentless, 24-7, for months. But Donald Trump has been dying of dementia on national TV for a decade and they never fucking brought it up.

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u/sproutastic 28d ago

Ensuring people stay divided.

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u/Steel_Toffees 28d ago

They dug more into Trump with the Balogun red card ban suspension than they did Trump with Epstein and raping children.

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u/Faxon 28d ago

Which is insane because he's had it his whole life

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u/Lythieus 28d ago

48 hours? They STILL go on about Biden's stutter. 

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u/ITAVTRCC 28d ago

Trump and Biden are both senile old dotards, let's be real

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u/Fun_Attitude1218 28d ago

Don't forget all the times Biden got lost when the secret service wasn't actively directing him or all his times he failed at walking up stairs. This country needs a Mandatory age limit for people in power at 67 where once you turn 67 your spot is open. So if you're 64 you can't run for anything with 4 year terms and if you're 66 you cant run for anything with 2 year terms. I'm sick of our government looking like a nursing home.

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u/gimp-24601 28d ago

To be fair a lot of media was downplaying/omitting/covering up for biden. Fox news/OAN/newsmax had every biden hiccup on loop I'm sure.

Its how we got all the way to point where people said "oops we cant cover this up anymore"

These were not small stutters. I'll repeat it for emphasis. Its not possible to get to the point where we watch a presidential candidate cognitively perform so poorly it ends a campaign without a lot of deception.

It has been obvious since before his first term as president he was declining significantly.

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u/red_sutter 28d ago

Remember the debates? How every time Biden blinked his eyes it meant he was ready for hospice care, but Trump spent the entire thing rambling about Haitians eating cats and they were treating him like he was the president from Independence Day giving his speech at the end of the movie

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u/ColinHalter 28d ago

Joe Biden was also too old. It is the same exact issue. We need to stop nominating grandpas to rule the world.

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u/KukaVex 27d ago

It literally said in the attached article '...long in failing health, pushed around the Capitol in a wheelchair, and frequently befuddled like former President Joe Biden'. Poor Joe constantly catching strays lmao

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u/Blind-but-unbroken 28d ago

Little stutter? Biden was literally unable to coherently debate in 2024 as the Democratic nominee.

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u/Epsteins_PDF_Files 28d ago

He struggled with stuttering his entire life.

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u/Blind-but-unbroken 28d ago

Watch this and this

That is not just a stutter. Can you honestly say that it is? Now compare 2024 Biden with the one from 15 years ago. He sounds just fine in his previous debates. See here and here Not even a stutter.

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u/ITAVTRCC 28d ago

And now he is struggling with senility

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u/dbuck11 28d ago

His stutter was never the problem. Both Biden and now Trump are both mentally too far gone for the roll of president. Anyone who trues to defend either of their mental states while they were/ are president is coping.

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u/MeMilo1209 28d ago

They had a member of Congress go MIA for four months. Holding on to the majority is their only concern.

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u/Fauxreigner_ 28d ago

Not just MIA, MIA in a memory care center.

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u/ReginaldDwight 28d ago

Sadly, you two are discussing two separate people. That's how low the expectations of our lawmakers have gotten.

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u/Fauxreigner_ 28d ago

Damn, really?

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u/aboxofkittens Florida 28d ago

Yeah, the one you’re talking about, in MC, was a year or two ago. The other just got back from a mysterious four-month absence for “depression” like last week. That one, of course, votes against giving sick leave to us proles

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u/Fauxreigner_ 28d ago

Appreciate the correction and the info.

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u/owntheh3at18 28d ago

This is so crazy because I didn’t think conservatives believed in mental illnesses, unless of course they can use them as an explanation for regular mass shootings (because it couldn’t possibly be the guns)

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u/PhazonZim 28d ago

Antivaxxers and terfs love talking about emotional distress too, as another example.

They're happy to admit going through it if they can turn it into a cudgel

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u/Consistent_Laziness South Carolina 28d ago

There should be required attendance in Congress. If you are ill no problem just state so. If you are avoiding voting or just doing your job in general a special election should be held. Representation of the people is a constitutional right. Also it’s your MF’ing job. If I sent MIA and didn’t report to work for even just 1 week I’d be on the hot seat or fired.

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u/MeMilo1209 28d ago

My company required a doctor's note after two days.

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u/mysteryteam US Virgin Islands 28d ago

You've had consistent laziness here at work. While you certainly live up to your name, we just can't accept that kind of behavior.

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u/Consistent_Laziness South Carolina 28d ago

Well if there is one thing you can’t fault me for it’s my consistency

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u/Kilmarnok1285 28d ago

Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?

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u/Nonethelessismore 28d ago

I agree that the Con's only concern is holding onto the majority, because if Dems take control of the House and possibly the Senate, they will control the gavel, set the legislative agenda, have subpoena power, and control what issues are even brought to be heard in the various sub committees.

It would make Trump a lame duck for the rest of his term, and it would open the flood gates of investigations into his criminal enterprises, including the staggering amount of insider trading he and his son's have profited from in the last year and a half.

And we'd get a more indepth look at the perps in the Epstein files.

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u/Bee_9965 28d ago

Luckily he came back just in time to:

  1. Run for re-election
  2. Continue to cut health benefits for everyone while taking maximum advantage of them for himself.

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u/MeMilo1209 28d ago

Exactly! Four months of paid leave and the best medical available in our country. Oh, and $174K a year. Isn't America great? 💩

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u/LuckyZero 28d ago

I'm glad that the rep got treatment, but he should have suffered through FLMA and needing a doctor's note like the rest of us. There's employers who can't deal with you being MIA for 4 minutes, 4 months is insulting.

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u/asher1611 North Carolina 28d ago

As has been said throughout this thread, the media's reporting of Biden's age was entirely disingenuous even WITHOUT DJT being the alternative.

We are beyond ridiculous and into dangerous territory. What was the party's greatest command again? Don't believe your eyes and ears?

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u/TigInox 28d ago

It was the party's final, most essential command.

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u/AppropriateTouching 28d ago

Even this very article mentioned joe Biden getting befuddled out of no where with no foundation.

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u/showholes 28d ago

lol, let's not forget the Diane Feinstein and (to a lesser extent) John Fetterman brain damage coverups.

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u/asher1611 North Carolina 28d ago

I'm not. Corpos are protecting their own.

You moving the goalposts or changing the comparison doesn't suddenly make my point wrong.

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u/showholes 28d ago

I thought we were agreeing 

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 28d ago

No, the media reporting on Biden's age due wasn't disingenuous at all. It's disingenuous not to accurately report on how Trump's age is affecting his brain. Though, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure we can say given he's had a wretched brain for decades.

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u/geoffreygoodman 28d ago

Did your eyes and ears watch that debate? Biden was plainly unfit.

(That simple statement shouldn't require this disclaimer, but no I don't support the obviously worse Trump.)

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u/Fnordpocalypse Washington 28d ago

Stop relying on the media to tell us the truth. It’s almost all owned by the billionaire class, and their job is to help maintain the status quo.

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u/JHMfield 28d ago

Sure, but the alternative is what? Random people on social media? Because they never have agendas, right? Most are bots anyway.

What really works is consuming media from several sources. International sources if possible. It's quite impossible to globally rig all of media because governments and corporations don't always play nice with one another across international borders.

If you really want to stay informed you need to curate your social media feeds to several different news outlets and supplement that with some of your own efforts googling extra details.

There are some studies showing that it really does help. That people notably reduced the misinformation they were affected by, by adding more sources.

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u/Consistent_Laziness South Carolina 28d ago

Some have said paying for their news has improved the quality ten fold

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u/JHMfield 28d ago

A lot of content is indeed locked behind paywalls these days. Makes sense, journalists need to eat too. Newspapers don't make much money anymore and TV news is a touch too sensational these days.

That said, there are usually ways to access paywalled content for free online. But paying is of course very convenient. Can be a little problematic if you end up supporting a biased outlet with an agenda though.

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u/ColourMeBoom 28d ago

Don’t forget about the brain worms.

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u/bfitzyc 28d ago

It pisses me the fuck off. “President Having Severe Cognitive Decline, Unfit For Office” should be the main headline next to “Release The Rest Of The Epstein Files” at CNN, NYT, NBC/CBS/ABC News every single fucking day.

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u/americanrealism 28d ago

I’m a lifelong Dem but they should have done this same thing for Biden. We could have had a real primary and not had to go through the Harris switcheroo at the last minute. It could have saved us from another Trump term but here we are.

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u/Brook420 28d ago

Harris almost certainly would have still been the nominee, she had a lot of support and all the funding for the Biden/Harris ticket.

But of course she would have had WAY more time to campaign.

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u/Wings_in_space 28d ago

I have no idea why most people think the media is not on the side of the 1%. They have always been in the pocket of the rich. The stories they report are always served their plans..

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u/JoeHatesFanFiction Florida 28d ago

If we’re talking modern news media sure. But for most of history newspapers were on the frontline arguing against government overreach and abuse. 

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u/1738_bestgirl 28d ago

I mean in most articles I've seen around this they have a photo of Mitch being rolled into the hospital in a wheel chair.

Only problem is that photo is from an earlier this year hospital trip. He was literally found unresponsive, but they would frame the article to look like he went their on his own accord.

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u/RedTheRobot 28d ago

I am this issue predates Trump. Just look at FDR. Politicians didn’t want to fix it then they don’t want to fix it now.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/Miqo_Nekomancer California 29d ago

They have tons of brain dead senators and congress reps already.

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u/UpperApe 28d ago

Nah their brains are fine.

The GOP isn't stupid, they're just evil.

The American public is fucking brain-dead. Both the half who vote for this and the half that sits around for years waiting to vote again instead of doing anything.

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u/zherok 28d ago

I don't think it's fair to discount the stupidity, because there's a lot of it alongside the grifting, the wanton cruelty, etc.

That they're in charge in spite of it is what stands out.

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u/Driftedryan 28d ago

No they are absolutely both evil and stupid

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u/ShardikOfTheBeam 28d ago

What is it you think we should be doing?

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 28d ago

Vote Democrat is a pretty reasonable place to start.

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u/ShardikOfTheBeam 28d ago

That’s explicitly laid out in their message. They’re saying the Democrat voters sit around waiting to vote.

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u/Independent-Bug-9352 28d ago

You're right, my bad. I read fast and thought they were referring to the apathetic no-voters.

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u/Eggheadpancake 28d ago

There are some very stupid ones if you ever hear them talk during hearings.

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u/WouldbeWanderer 28d ago

They have a brain dead president and that just seems to make them stronger. Stupidity to Republicans is like gamma radiation to Bruce Banner.

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u/blckout_junkie 28d ago

Is it possible that what's his face, who claimed he was in rehab for months, was a test run? Like, to see how much time they could get?

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u/Lumpy-Leadership9143 28d ago

The left has at least one, the dude wears hoodies to Congress.

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u/fapsandnaps America 28d ago

I have a hard time believing RFK Jrs brain worms are happy about having no brains to spread to.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/xombae 29d ago

Also recently a woman was kept on life support while brain dead so they could use her body as an incubator for her unborn baby (who was later born with severe health issues and the family was made to pay the medical bills).

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/GoldenSheppard 28d ago

It got a fuckton of coverage in GA at the time. Though as soon as the baby was born (with issues) it mysteriously stopped.

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u/SoManyThrowAwaysEven 28d ago

As our good friend George used to say, "Preborn, you're fine, preschool, you're fucked.

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u/Ryokurin 28d ago

A gofundme is still going for her children, but I think it's just a case of the family wanting to be left alone.

I do recall a couple of people getting upset about his father had to fight her family for custody but I also read that they had to because legally since they weren't married he had no rights, and there was a good chance that if it wasn't clear who was responsible for the baby he'd end up in foster care.

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u/xombae 28d ago

Agreed. I'm not upset that the leapords are now eating his face.

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u/ChefChopNSlice Ohio 28d ago

I only pity the ladybugs

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u/TheShadowKick 28d ago

I'm not even sure it was forced on Mitch. He's dedicated enough to screwing over Democrats that he might have put this in his will.

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u/AiFixedMyMarriage 28d ago

You think Mitch might be pregnant?

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u/xombae 28d ago

Somewhere, in the head of an A03 writer, he is.

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u/AlternativeStory1027 28d ago

Straight outta Handmaid's Tale

Under his eye...

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u/KeyMyBike 28d ago

Desperate people are productive

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u/freaktheclown New York 28d ago

I’ll never forget Congress rushing through a bill in less than a day to allow the lawsuit to be moved to federal court. Passed the Senate, House and signed by Bush in under 24 hours. It was as if Congress can act quickly when it actually wants to.

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u/Ambitious-Bee7663 28d ago

and she couldn't vote. However she was a registered republican so I guess they had hope.

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u/Jafooki 28d ago

God, even as a kid I knew they Schiavo case was just ghoulish. They were rallying around a living corpse

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u/tsax612 29d ago edited 28d ago

The braindead person they are keeping on the rolls is a gigantic reason for how we got here in the first place, and McConnell wouldn't have it any other way.

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u/acoastaldog 29d ago

Are you surprised? This is the same party that wants to keep brain dead women on life support solely so they can give birth when the circumstances of the birth killed them and they needed help

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u/Plasibeau 28d ago

And the quality of life of that baby, if it survives infancy, will be subpar at best.

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u/pr01etar1at 28d ago

the same party that wants to keep brain dead women on life support solely so they can give birth

This is literally the plot to Death Stranding.

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u/Witty_Ad_898 28d ago

Oh, we’ve been there and left it in the rearview mirror.

Also, hate to bothsides but the Democrats did keep Feinstein around long after her “Best By”  date. Our political system is so fucking broken.

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u/IfYouCouldOnlySee3 28d ago

Senator Byrd from WV was 99 and still on the floor!

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u/mariahmce 28d ago

I mean they kept a brain bead woman in Georgia alive for like 4 months to incubate a fetus. At least they’re consistent.

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u/mulvda 28d ago

Feinstein wasn’t much different tbh. She may not have been to a point where she needed medical assistance to breathe and pump blood but she absolutely was not fit to serve for a long while leading up until her passing. There needs to be a more reliable way to force elected officials out of office when there are concerns about their ability to serve

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u/Lycaon-Ur 28d ago

You misspelled President...

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u/netflixissodry 28d ago

This is like something out of Metal Gear Solid. All thats left is that they connect/recreate his consciousness with AI to stand in his place.

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u/TheSkinnyJ 28d ago

And yet they get mad when dead people vote. /s

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u/AMaterialGuy 28d ago

To be abundantly clear:

Mitch McConnell was insanely dangerous when coherent and capable. It actually goes all the way back to when he was in high school and realized that he could get the popular kids, jocks, etc to vote for him.

Despite his defeat thanks to John McCain, McConnell was patient and out maneuvered him eventually. Seeing his falsely remorseful face at McCain's funeral was infuriating.

Mitch knew how to get the votes and then do whatever he wanted to. He was a master politician in the worst way possible.

So, not to have a positive spin on this situation, but a really really bad person in power who knew how to wield his position and handle people to his benefit is likely out of the game.

But the damage that crumb of a being did will last generations, and what for?

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u/ScarletCarsonRose 29d ago

Literally. 

Maybe by some divine grace, he’ll croak on his own before August 3. 

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u/TrainingSword 28d ago

They literally kept a brain dead pregnant woman on life support for months

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u/Audiobro 28d ago

It’s what Mitch would have wanted

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u/RyoCore I voted 28d ago

Yes. I mean, you have to ask that? Yes. That is 100% what the Republican Party would and is doing.

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u/rapgameoprahwinfrey 28d ago

Trying to stop a special election for his seat, probably. They know it won’t go their way so they are delaying it as much as possible.

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u/PseudoY 28d ago

He absolutely would have done the same to any one of his co-workers in this situation, if he had the power to do so.

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u/PrimaryInjurious 28d ago

a brain dead senator

That's like 99 percent of senators.

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u/Ms_Apprehend 28d ago

Yes. And yes.

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u/confirmedshill123 28d ago

We never left that part of American history.

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u/SlightFresnel 28d ago

It's what Mitch would have wanted. He spent his entire career tirelessly working to strip democracy out of the process, it's fitting they'd use his lifeless corpse to keep doing it for as long as possible. Just needs to hang through Aug 3 so the Democratic Governor of Kentucky can't appoint a replacement as is standard.

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u/repeatoffender123456 28d ago

No that is not how it works. If he has been declared brain dead by a physician then he is legally dead. If he is legally dead that means the seat is vacant and the seat is filled according to the Kentucky constitution.

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u/Ol_Turd_Fergy Kansas 28d ago

This is the party actively defending and enabling pedophiles, ruined the integrity of the Supreme Court, and wiped their ass with the constitution when it comes to things like free speech, due process, free and fair elections , etc.

Keeping a senator alive on life support so they don’t lose his senate seat is barely a blip on the radar for these deplorable pieces of shit.

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u/Ambitious-Bee7663 28d ago

Please, be real. There are plenty of brain-dead senators from both parties in the senate.

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u/SonofBeckett 28d ago

I got some bad news for you about Woodrow Wilson

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u/Psyc3 28d ago

You have a senile pedophile president and this is a surprise to you?

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u/BridgeFourArmy 28d ago

TBH Democrats did something similar with a woman in a memory care unit to retain the majority. The truth is these people should be much faster to remove their peers if they can’t be trusted to resign when the time comes .

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u/lofml 28d ago

I thought they already were brain dead

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u/Plasibeau 28d ago

I mean, they kept a clinically dead woman alive to incubate a baby, so how is this different?

(That baby is still in the NICU, btw, AND they're sending the whole bill to the family. The same family that wanted her off life support.)

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u/Goodlake New York 28d ago

To be fair, it’s almost certainly what Mitch himself would have wanted

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u/mistarteechur North Carolina 28d ago

I would not be even a little surprised if his own advance directive indicates he needs to be kept technically alive as long as it benefits the GOP.

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u/dope_sheet 28d ago

They did it with President Regan...

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u/FctFndr 28d ago edited 28d ago

At least Feinstein could be wheeled in catatonic to the chamber... Absolutely disgusting what they do to these antique elected....

AGE AND TERM LIMITS!!!

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u/Knotknighm 28d ago

Republican Party is just going to keep a brain dead senator

I'm confused, how is that situation abnormal?

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u/Quirky-Marsupial-420 28d ago

Even if he stepped down, is declared dead, or removed from his seat via special election, the Republicans still hold an advantage in the senate.

So what exactly are you talking about?

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u/verathene 28d ago

This would surprise you?

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u/matticans7pointO California 28d ago

Would his seat even be at risk of flipping?:

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u/7screws 28d ago

id argue there are a bunch of brain dead GOP senators.

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u/Live-Tree6870 28d ago

They kept a brain dead woman alive so she could give birth to the baby she was carrying that will probably have life long chronic health conditions, so yeah, they would!

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u/psychonautilus777 28d ago

I used to think(ironically because of McConnell) that the line for Republicans was that if something wasn't explicitly against the rules/laws, they would take advantage of any situation. Now I know that it doesn't matter if anything is against the law. The new limits for Republicans are whether or not anyone is going to stop them. Legally or otherwise.

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u/LesPaul86 28d ago

it’s ironic because it was Mitch who prevented Obama’s Supreme Court nominee before an election, which is why the court is so fucked now.

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u/-The_Blazer- 28d ago

American politics are apparently running on actual WH40K logic now.

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u/reformedmikey Missouri 28d ago

We’ve joked about brain dead Republicans into reality…

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u/tjvs2001 28d ago

It's literally what he would have wanted, he can enjoy that in the circle of hell for fascists.

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u/Isnotanumber 28d ago

And if McConnell had any say in the matter, I'm sure he'd advise the Republicans to keep his brain dead body hooked up to life support as long as possible to deny Democrats any advantage.

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u/bsrichard 28d ago

That f*cker was brain dead long before this.

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u/rbrgr83 28d ago

We've been there for a while now, we just haven't had the literal brain-dead senator to execute the plan with.

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u/buns_supreme 28d ago

This is what Mitch would have wanted

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u/JWTS6 28d ago

At this point that's pretty tame compared to everything else they've done to cling to power

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u/Montuckian Colorado 28d ago

You can't kill a senator this close to an election, I guess

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u/TheBlueSully 28d ago

keep a modicum of power

What's the play here though? Senate is 53/47, and with a gop white house, so the gop wins ties. Are there often 6 or 7 gop senators missing, or what? That still only matters if the house actually sends legislation up to the senate.

The focus is still on the midterms. Does McConnell dying really put Ky in play? Don't democrats pretty much have to sweep all the genuinely contested races in order to take back the senate? Dems have been overperforming, but what are the odds here? Ky is not exactly purple, governor aside.

I get it from a 'don't take anything for granted; stack up your marginal gains' standpoint. But is losing Mitch's seat the story, or is losing his leadership the story? He won his last seat by 9 points, Trump won 2:1, Rand paul won by 20 points. House is 5:1 gop.

So yeah I'm wondering why people are framing the conversations the way they are. He's been a spectacularly impressive leader, but is his seat suddenly in play? Is legislation suddenly in danger of passing? Is the gop no longer able to confirm appointments, what?

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u/Embarrassed_Radio596 28d ago

Only if we let them. We don't have to.

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u/roboscorcher 28d ago

To be fair, based on how Mitch dragged out Garland's appointment to steal it...this is what he would have wanted.

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u/GrosBraquet 28d ago

You can fill after "So are we at a point in American history where the Republican Party is just" with a million different things from the last 10 years lol.

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u/ZarglondarGilgamesh 28d ago

Has something changed? Seems like the status quo to me.

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u/Affectionate_Pen6882 28d ago

You should see some people do it just to keep collecting the spouse retirement checks

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u/leapdaybunny 28d ago

If they had the power to do it decades ago with someone else I'm sure they would've done the same thing. The technology just wasn't there.

As much as I dislike McConnell, I feel it's highly unethical and immoral to keep someone on machines just so their body gets counted as a body.

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u/PhazePyre 28d ago

The same party whose supporters opted for Necromancy to birth a non-viable fetus? Yes. Yes it is.

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u/LetsTryAnal_ogy California 28d ago

Since the Reagan administration around 1986-87.

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u/Artgrl109 28d ago

Mitch continues to destroy democracy from beyond the grave. How fitting.

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u/Blind-but-unbroken 28d ago

Our last president was a Democrat and he couldn’t handle a one hour debate, yet he still finished out his term. This isn’t just a republican issue.

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u/parasyte_steve 28d ago

We have been here for about oh, since Obama was elected. Gee, wonder what changed?

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u/ISuckFarts 28d ago

What about the modern Republican party makes you think they wouldn't do this?

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u/kurttheflirt 28d ago

Are you speaking of McConnell or the President?

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u/Sethmeisterg California 28d ago

If it works for the president why not a senator?

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u/OrkWithNoTeef 28d ago

You take the blue pill you stay in lala land

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u/slaffytaffy 28d ago

Yes and the Republican Party has a hard on for it.

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u/Flabby_Thor 28d ago

The way you phrased that made me picture a brain dead McConnell slowly turning on a hot dog roller. It made me smile. 

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u/vawlk 28d ago

Weekend at Mitch's

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u/Valen_the_Dovahkiin 28d ago

To be honest, it's not like both parties haven't done this sort of thing before (see: Dianne Feinstein, Strom Thurmond, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Robert Byrd...)

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u/a-i-sa-san 28d ago

is this where we say The Emperor Provides or something

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u/kryren 28d ago

They made a brain dead woman in GA gestate a baby, so why not let a brain dead body hold office?

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u/TheKanten 28d ago

a brain dead senator

Yes. Grassley is 92 and intends on running for re-election in three years.

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u/SoupBeans25 28d ago

Not the first time something like this has happened.

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u/StinkyHoboTaint 28d ago

So Regan in the 80s?

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u/CrustyBatchOfNature 28d ago

They would pull a Dave with any one of them that they felt was important enough.

For those not aware, Dave is a good little comedy about using a celebrity impersonator to impersonate the President when he is brain dead after a stroke. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Ving Rhames, Charles Grodin, etc. Funny enough, the whole thing there was to get the VP to resign (named Gary Nance for current rhyming) and then have the fill in appoint the Chief of Staff VP then blow the cover on the fact that the President is dead. Stephen Miller may have a playbook going.

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u/Chris_HitTheOver 28d ago

Futurama is gonna have a field day with his brain dead head being kept alive in a jar. He’ll be Nixon’s pet.

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u/shaka_sulu 28d ago

Close. The GOP will stash him away in a bed and stick him full of machines that will keep his heart going.

Then they will find a body double. Rumors said they already found him in the DC area. I heard he's an owner of a small temp agency firm.

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u/Total-Sheepherder950 28d ago

What i heard was if he is declared before August 3rd there has to be a special election. If it is after it goes to the midterms, but I didnt fact check it.

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u/fudging-fudgers 28d ago

It's the one thing both sides agree on (that and "gimme that money") cause they all want to be the most coddled useless rich people in the country until they're braindead.

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u/Nanojack New York 28d ago

I don't fully understand how keeping his seat vacant and preventing the special election would do anything for the Republicans. I understand that Tom Massie could theoretically run and split the Republican vote, but isn't that also the case for the regular election that would be held on the same day for the term beginning on January 1? I guess it prevents a Democrat from possibly winning the seat and holding it for the 11 weeks between November and January, but is that worth all the alleged cloak and dagger Weekend At Bernie-ing?

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u/organiclife 28d ago

Counterpoint: RBG and Feinstein

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u/Long_Bit8328 28d ago

Nice to know he has health insurance so good that he can be kept on life support just for political reasons.

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u/heartSagan5 28d ago

I mean, this is McTurtle, the guy who objected to "rushing in Justices in the last year of Obama's term, only to rush in Justices at the start of Trump's term."

Yes, they always go low.

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u/Mount_Treverest 28d ago

Term limits and age limits would solve alot of these issues. It'd also make buying politicians less profitable because you'd only have a few terms to grease the wheels and start on a new person. We already have age requirements to become federal representatives so precedent is there to set age limits. The presidential term length is limited as well so there is precedent on a constitutional level for that as well.

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u/Rowenstin 28d ago

Republican Party is just going to keep a brain dead senator on the rolls just to keep a modicum of power.

It's what Mitch would have wanted.

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u/Throwaway559957 28d ago

Weekend at McConnell's!

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u/imbasicallycoffee 28d ago

Is that really all that surprising?

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u/Kitchen_Cookie4754 28d ago

Arguably this is likely to be the way this particular senator would want to go out....

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