Not sure if anyone has touched on this, but it kept popping up in my mind today. If McConnell's health/death (a few other GOP senators qualify as well but he is most obvious due to age and the recent hands issue)causes him to abandon his seat and the Senate is likely a 51-49 GOP majority, it would flip to a Dem majority upon his departure. Kentucky's governor is a Democrat and would appoint a Dem to replace him until the next election, where we can regain a seat elsewhere. Being a 50-50 tie with Kamala as the tie breaker would give Dems an unobstructed government.
If McConnell's health/death (a few other GOP senators qualify as well but he is most obvious due to age and the recent hands issue)causes him to abandon his seat ...
I agree he's ill. And I'll share my medically intuitive take on that below. But I've always seen him leaving because of something related to his wife. She leaves the country; he leaves office. There's scandal and privately he feels humiliated.
As for what's going on with him energetically/health-wise, I scanned him after those photos broke:
The first thing I saw was something I registered as a longstanding autoimmune-type condition, like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or scleroderma, etc. Could even be diabetes, but that feels less true to me. Whatever it is, it's something that he's had for a while and has mostly done okay with.
However, it has (inevitably) begun to attack his organs in some way. I heard the words "intersticial lung disorder." I'd never heard of this, and am still a little dubious about the issue being connected to his lungs, but I then saw that whatever it is may have created a risk of pulmonary embolism. Could happen for lots of other reasons. Anyway, my sense is that his doctors recently put him on a powerful blood thinner as a prophylactic measure. He doesn't take the best care of himself in the first place, so it caused a lot of bleeding under the skin.
Anyone else have a sense about it?
By the by, I predicted here sometime last year that Bill Barr has a very problematic prostate. I don't get the feeling he's taken care of that issue very wisely.
ETA: I've heard of intersticial cystitis (because I have it), but not the lung issue.
You basically described interstitial lung disease to a tee causation and all.
Unfortunately, I think any hope that McConnell would do the right thing and work for the good of the whole country is misplaced. He seems to only care for his power. And according to reporting, this will continue if he remains in his position:
https://www.axios.com/gop-senate-biden-transition-50ebe6c8-e318-4fdb-b903-048908b3b954.html
@vestralux It can be caused by many things, one of which is injury to the lungs. Him being from Kentucky and coal mining industry area... that's a bit of ironic twist ..pretty sure he himself never worked in a coal mine. That are also injuries from many autoimmune diseases and could also be from damage to his lungs as a child with polio. There have also been many cases caused by Covid-19 infection. His would have been especially vulnerable due to his childhood battle with polio.
The bruising on Mitch's hands: It could all just be that the guy bruises easily. It's a common condition in some people that increases with age as the skin thins. Since half my family is fair skinned, I've seen it in my own relatives as they aged. They go to the doctor for a procedure and an IV in the back of the hand, and bam, extensive bruising as blood escapes into the layer under the skin. That bruising may never go away either. He looks like he took a fall at one point, but that is also common when you are up there in age.
Oh, McConnell won't do the right thing out of the goodness of his heart. But he will if it is in his interest to do so.
If he and Republicans deny a covid relief bill, then their own people will suffer. Many Trump supporters will end up dying in higher numbers than other groups because (1) many live in states with poor health care, (2) many won't wear masks so they will likely catch Covid and die anyway, and (3) many Trump supporters live in rural areas with fewer resources and economic opportunities, so more deaths from homelessness and drug use will occur.
Bottom line? No aid equals more of your voters dying off, which means you may not have the same number of die-hard facist Trump/Republican voters around in 2022 and beyond.
So we can count on McConnell to work in his interests for a while at least. Let's give Biden a chance and see what we can do. We sadly wont accomplish every thing we want to (yet), but if the evil Trumper is vanquished, then we can focus on the Republicans next.
@vestralux It can be caused by many things, one of which is injury to the lungs. Him being from Kentucky and coal mining industry area... that's a bit of ironic twist ..pretty sure he himself never worked in a coal mine. That are also injuries from many autoimmune diseases and could also be from damage to his lungs as a child with polio. There have also been many cases caused by Covid-19 infection. His would have been especially vulnerable due to his childhood battle with polio.
Absolutely! Thank you for mentioning his childhood polio. I'd inadvertently skipped over it in my original post.
I also find it telling that he comes from Kentucky coal country, where he's repeatedly chosen to make it worse for the struggling people of that region. For decades. Kentucky is a beautiful—but also very haunted—place.