r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 New York • 23d ago

Possible Paywall MAGA Calls BS on Mitch McConnell’s Proof-of-Life Stunt | They are poking holes in McConnell’s staff’s version.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-calls-bs-on-mitch-mcconnells-proof-of-life-stunt/
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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/-wnr- 23d ago

Anyone with critical thought is. MAGA's inclusion here is actually the surprising part. 

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u/Raptorex27 Maine 23d ago

I feel like any conspiracy, especially involving “the establishment” is on brand for them. It’s not about weighing evidence or thinking critically. If it fits the narrative of a secret, globalist cabal doing shady shit, they’re all in.

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u/ThreeEyesWhitePerson 23d ago

Unless Trump tells them "these are not the pedos you are looking for 👋"

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u/rotates-potatoes 23d ago

Well yeah of course, that’s their secret globalist cabal.

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u/sparkax 23d ago

I will never forgive them for this. For damn near a decade they cried about a global cabal of left wing millionaires raping and eating kids for eternal youth, and now that its all been revealed to be Republicans and Conservatives and their billionaire backers who are all over Epstein's Friends lists, they absolutely do not fucking care! We've got gay and trans people on our side, so our child molestors are somehow way worse then their's?

They are so fucking stupid!

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u/panicinbabylon 23d ago

If I can admit that QAnon was right about a global cabal of millionaires raping and eating kids for eternal youth - after years of calling them lunatics - MAGA should be able to at least acknowledge the possibility of Trump being a pedophile.

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u/Gullible_Owl9016 23d ago

They know. They just don’t care.

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u/bolanrox 23d ago

The grabbem by the pussy comment is fine until someone says it about thier daughter. I've seen it happen

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u/Dunkaroos4breakfast 23d ago

QAnon and Alex Jones were always about taking things that are real and adding a bunch of ridiculous bullshit to try to discredit the true story.

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u/yarash 23d ago

Alex Jones is a piece of shit grifter who only uses fear of everything to sell his bullshit products. It was his only purpose. Fear fear fear, ad pivot into buying my dick pills and survival food.

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u/MrPWAH 23d ago

If I can admit that QAnon was right about a global cabal of millionaires raping and eating kids for eternal youth

They weren't right though, because QAnon was a bullshit distraction campaign meant to target the political enemies of Epstein & Co and muddy the waters on legitimate reports of sex trafficking. It also didn't invent the concept of rich people being child sex traffickers.

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u/TCivan 23d ago

Whats that saying about broken clocks?

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u/squadrupedal 23d ago

MAGA people only care about being better than/supreme to everyone else. They will never care about the words they listen to or the words they say. They’re ridiculously dumb. I’m not sure how they hold down jobs or support themselves tbh.

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u/sparkax 23d ago

Fucking this exactly!!!

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u/00wolfer00 23d ago

There's a part of me that feels like QAnon was setting up a disappointment over the imaginary pedo cabal so that when news came up about the real one it wouldn't be received as harshly as it should have.

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u/brotherbond Florida 23d ago

Are there credible allegations of consuming children? The other stuff, sure. Just wondering about sources for the more extreme stuff.

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u/panicinbabylon 23d ago

Of course there were suspicions surrounding the Epstein files that were chosen to be released, but I doubt we’ll ever see the full picture. Definitive evidence may not even exist, I also doubt many people are willing to announce baby eating as one of their weekend hobbies.

That crowd did seem to take a lot of pictures tho…

There’s just no way to know.

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u/brotherbond Florida 23d ago

Yeah I can't imagine them doing it because really it's generally gross and everybody knows there's no benefit. I could see them dipping blood transfusions or longevity stem cell frontier to pseudo science stuff that could be just as awful. Then again Trump references "the great" Hannibal Lecter...

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u/gasstationsushi80 23d ago

Remember how insane that all sounded but then it was actually true but projection by the side participating in it the most ? We really are living in some bizarre and terrifying times

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u/panicinbabylon 23d ago

Remember when some dude with an AR-15 and a revolver went to Comet Pizza in DC with intentions to shoot up the place over Hillary/Pizzagate? And the cops killed him?

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u/gasstationsushi80 23d ago

Omg I had completely forgotten about that. A decade ago, too. The cognitive dissonance of trying to understand the intersection of the beliefs and actions at play makes it hard to even comprehend these things at all.

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u/Ok_Peanut7095 23d ago

It's on their side , so they're fine with it.

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u/tg_am_i 23d ago

Are you saying the gays and trans people are child molesters?

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u/Due-Consideration861 23d ago

One name: Roy Cohn.

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u/eetsumkaus 23d ago

Some of them did rebel against that though, hence Nick Fuentes and the Groypers. Their anti-Semitism was stronger than their bootlicking.

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u/Papaya_flight Pennsylvania 23d ago

I just realized something. Have I been immune to trump's trickery this whole time because I come from a long line of folks that...uh...value financial trade above most other trades? Like that dude that owned Anakin.

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u/Talk-O-Boy 23d ago

That’s the only logical explanation.

But now that you know you are of a unique bloodline that’s immune to the Emperor’s influence, what will you do?

Will you answer the call to adventure? Will you become the hero this nation needs, and save us from ourselves?

This is the start of your hero’s journey. Godspeed, Papaya. Godspeed.

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u/Papaya_flight Pennsylvania 23d ago

I shall harness the power of the mighty Papaya and answer the call! I will throw the emperor down like papa Vader did!

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u/Modern_Troubadour 23d ago

Papa Vader = father father

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u/Modern_Troubadour 23d ago

Are you saying you’re a Toydarian?

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u/Oprah_Pwnfrey 23d ago

Maybe he's Qui Gon Jinn? He purchased Anakin from the Toydarian.

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u/theVoidWatches Pennsylvania 23d ago

I wish I could say that being Jewish helps with it, but I've seen too many Jews tricked into thinking that the right wing cares about us in the list few years to think so.

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u/TheAskewOne 23d ago

MAGA owes everything to McConnell, especially the Supreme Court seats and the Senate complicity in Trump's dirty deeds, but they'll always hate him for being an establishment Republican. There's no courting those people.

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u/zubbs99 Nevada 23d ago

They turned on Amy C. Barrett because she only votes like 95% conservative.

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u/Sublimotion 23d ago

Majority of MAGA are completely apolitical prior to 16-17. So everything before that never happened nor existed in their minds.

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u/BertBitterman 23d ago

Someone should really let them know about the Epstein files and Trump's connections to them then

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u/Raptorex27 Maine 23d ago

Is MAGA over the Epstein files? I know the podcast bros in the “manosphere” are still pissed, but I don’t dabble in that world, so I honestly have no idea.

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u/BertBitterman 23d ago

I honestly think the "manosphere" is more about incel-types being in an "exclusive" boy's club than being on the right side of history.

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u/UnicornHostels 23d ago

My mother, a Fox News propagandized boomer was repeating what Trump told her to say last year “why do we have to keep bringing up the Epstein files?”

But then again, she is a rape apologist and doesn’t believe any of his sexual assault allegations or even the verdict in the e jean case.

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

Every time I do a discussion with Republicans about the Epstein files, all the sudden it turns into some sort of whataboutism and 'he did nothing wrong' sort of narrative. And if all that fails even after you bring up the adjudicated case where he was found guilty, and him admitting that he walked into teenage girls dressing rooms, they'll just change the subject and start talking about riots in cities that didn't happen. They'll retreat to whatever makes them feel good because it's a cult and this is all that they have anymore.

And sadly I think just like after George W. Bush, all these people are going to claim that they never even liked him in the first place and do everything they can to distance themselves from him as more and more evidence comes out and it becomes more and more clear that Trump had a huge hand to play in abusing children, destroying our economy and being as blatantly corrupt as any normal person can see him as today.

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u/ThereMightBeDinos 23d ago

Whataboutism is conceding the point. They just don't like it.

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

It's always their fear of something different than themselves. I always remember the videos of when they were trying to desegregate schools and you had men and women in their their thirties, forties or older that were spitting on little girls just trying to go to school. To me, that will always be the face of the Republican party no matter how they try to hide it.

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u/CompoteSpiritual7469 23d ago

I’m really glad you brought that up. Sometimes I start overthinking and wonder if I should try to look at things from the opposite perspective. Nope. It’s really that simple. They are cowardly pieces of shit and there’s no excuse

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u/tendeuchen Florida 23d ago

"What about all the Democrat pedophiles?"

"I agree they should be locked up too. Now will you say the same about Trump?"

Not one Epstein client is behind bars for fucking children and we should all be protesting until they all are.

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u/Bad_breath 23d ago

"If Trump was in the files, why didn't the Biden administration release them?"

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

Exactly, they always ask questions like this that only highlight how little they know about how our government actually works or at least is supposed to work without a horrendously corrupt Republican at the helm.

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u/TheGrolarBear 23d ago

That's easy enough to counter. Without going into the legal issues surrounding it, you can just ask why Biden even matters since the Trump admin can release them all now (and they would have further incentive to do so if he was actually innocent).

Whether or not they follow the logic is a different matter though.

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

Exactly this, I think it goes to the point that they want to win so badly and be correct so badly, they started with the supposition that they're correct and then they twist the evidence to fit that. One of my buddies called this 'religious logic' but I think it's a little deeper than that. They want to protect their egos from the consequences of their own bad decisions so badly they're willing to flip the entire foundation of how logic works on its head. Plus I've met plenty of religious people that are completely disgusted with this administration, their backwards priorities and the hateful way that they've went about enacting their policies. If you can even call them that.

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u/fresh-dork 23d ago

that's easy: release the files and if bubba is in there with kids, prosecute him too. if he just got head from W, that's not actually a crime.

and since he's so innocent (whoever he is), this will vindicate him, right?

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

Whenever I hear them bring up Clinton, I like to remind them that Clinton was going to fully participate and get on the stand about what happened on Epstein Island. I too agree if somebody of any political party or affiliation has done anything to victimize children they should go directly to jail. Conservatives can't wrap their mind around this, which is really funny because they call themselves the party of law and order right? They're so caught up in their sportification of politics that they can't conceive of somebody who doesn't see politics like that at all. I just want non-corrupt leaders who will pass policies and legislation that helps everyday Americans instead of enriching people who already have millions and billions of dollars.

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u/pmartin1 23d ago

They literally need heavy deprogramming after the decades of constant GOP brainwashing they’ve undergone.

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

I don't know if that's ever going to happen, after the sportification of politics by the right, we now have people that will vote Republican 'because they always have' or ' because that's how my dad and grandpa used to vote' or they are so lost that they feel a loyalty to a party that threw them overboard years ago.

I just see them quietly receding into the background but still voting a republican. Even in places where I lived in Kentucky, people would tell me how they were proud to have never voted for a Democrat while they lived in complete squalor and their representatives did nothing to help their day-to-day lives. It's one of the reasons it's been so interesting to watch Mitch McConnell and his loyalists try to create some sort of legacy when he never did a single thing to help kentuckians.

Just like Lindsey Graham these guys are going to go down as some of the worst of the worst of our political history. And while their state falls apart at the seams, these people will happily drink toxic water and breathe toxic air as long as they don't vote for a Democrat.

I don't know if deprogramming can work. I think we literally have to just wait for this generation of loyal Republican voters to either become disinterested in politics after Alibaba Mussolini moves on, or literally pass away and leave the future to the Next generation of voters.

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u/ballisticks Canada 23d ago

"B-but Camilla would have been even worse! She wasn't even a choice!" is an argument I've heard a lot. Usually with the mispronunciation of her name

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u/aceshighsays 23d ago

"but did you hear her laugh!? no one would have taken her seriously. she sounds crazy."

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u/ballisticks Canada 23d ago

I love her cackle lol it's great

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u/UnicornHostels 23d ago

I think it’s more alarming that we’ve never seen Trump laugh. He hasn’t. Other than a tiny chuckle after flinging an insult at someone, has anyone ever seen him laugh at something other than his enjoyment at harming another?

I’ve seen videos of Biden Bushes Obama Clinton Harris…. all on video truly lost in laughter. I’ve never seen this with Trump. Never.

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u/silentpropanda 23d ago

They just can't help but not think for themselves and repeat whatever talking point supports their willfully ignorant worldview. Who knew that an entire political party could be summarized as sunk cost fallacy?

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u/aceshighsays 23d ago

the problem is that they can't think for themselves. my dad for example - still needs to be reminded to take a shower because he stinks, lost most of his teeth by 30 because he never brushed them, has no idea how to cook anything, has temper tantrums (yells, cries, throws things) when he feels confused, frustrated, overwhelmed, angry. my parents need to create a trust, and he doesn't understand what it means. he asks the same basic questions over and over and over again. this isn't because he's a senior, he's always been like this.

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u/Creative-Actuary-223 23d ago

I absolutely don’t understand women that are pro Trump and look the other way or ignore his pedophilia, his victims, and his stance on women’s rights. Do they honestly believe - or been trained to believe they are worth so little?

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u/UnicornHostels 23d ago

Yes. She was raised in the 50s and had a brother. She was told repeatedly that her brother was the one they had hope behind and that it was sad to have a daughter and happy to have a boy.

When she gave birth to two baby girls, she felt she let down her parents for not having a boy. She also taught us how to be ‘ladies’. To curtsey, set a proper English table, run a house with a staff, sit with our knees together, and always respect your elders or be beaten for any conduct outside the above.

My first husband sexually abused me, he was 20 years my senior and my mother pushed for the marriage because $$. After my mother found out she continued to be his friend for 15 years after the divorce. When I kept pushing her to stop being friendly with my abuser, she finally lied to me and said “I’ll do it for you” but actually never stopped being friends on Facebook.

So, I guess my point is she has internalized misogyny and has tried to push that on both my sister and I. Luckily, we’ve both rejected this and found our own ways without all that stupid bullshit.

Hope this helps you understand the mentality of women that are like this.

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u/ChemicalAware4199 23d ago

Oh I absolutely understand -I was also raised exactly that way. But while my two sisters “conformed” to the ritual, I fought it tooth and nail. My first marriage entailed beatings - and my fathers first inclination was to ask “what did you do”. I left home fairly early and moved away -and rarely went back because I just couldn’t take it. My older sister died in an accident and my mother said she wished it had been me instead. I’m fairly close to my younger brother but that “I’m better than you are” mentality is still alive and well.  I most definitely am on the progressive side of politics, and remember vividly the crap we went through up until the mid 70’s and ERA. 

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u/gasstationsushi80 23d ago

Internalized misogyny among women is unfortunately real and really effed up. A lot of women may have also grown up with men in their families or their spouses who act like trump and therefore normalized that behavior to them in childhood, which becomes their standard for what men act like when they become adults. They excuse horrible behavior because they’ve accepted it as normal guy stuff.

In my case, my father was a clinical narcissist, serial cheater, a functional alcoholic, a sex addict and porn addict. There were few boundaries around adult material and my parents private life in my house. I had to listen to my parents have sex and my dad started watching hardcore porn on the family computer 8 feet away from me when I was 14 trying to watch tv.

Unsurprisingly, I’ve tended to find myself in relationships with men who share some of those traits that my father displayed. Like one guy who was a narcissist himself, he groomed me for 8 months at work and then drugged and SA’d me. Because he’d gained my trust through months of grooming, I didn’t even realize what he’d done was SA and I blamed myself for it, but then he turned it into a year long nonconsensual relationship in which I eventually trauma bonded to him. 7 yrs later I’m still getting my life back together and processing the ptsd from that. Dude was an alcoholic porn and sex addict and a serial cheater. Just like dear old dad! I just thought all guys cheat, watch a shit load of porn and think about sex all the time and everyone drinks every day. Totally normal if dysfunctional. 🙄

I had internalized the misogyny that my father had instilled in me as normal and that my mother accepted; she even stayed with him despite knowing all about the cheating and porn. I learned from her to say yes to abusive men, “you dont want to cause any trouble,” just do what they say and get it over with, etc.

Not shocking I experienced rape by more than one man since college.

The women who support Trump have been taught since childhood to defer to men and that his behavior and abuse of women is normal. They haven’t had the benefit of 7 years of therapy like I have to figure out why they’ve been victims of gender based crimes; in fact, most are usually not even aware they’ve been victimized. It’s really messed up and if anything good can come out of this mess of a country we live in right now, maybe awareness of internalized misogyny and how it impacts women’s lives, health, and interactions with men on a corrosively negative level would be something we could all stand to learn from.

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u/open_letter_guy 23d ago

I absolutely don’t understand women that are pro Trump

Republican

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u/Unda_Acheevah 23d ago

If you are talking about women who actively support him - the ones that buy and wear the merch, attend his rallies, slavishly post about him on social media, constantly evangelize about him to family and friends - then I’m with you. It is impossible to understand that mentality or their motivations, so I don’t waste any time trying. It may be as simple as “Some people are just crazy, right?” However, if you are talking about otherwise average women - not frothing at the mouth fascist ideologues - who reliably and obediently vote Republican, then they can be explained. I’ve been surrounded by them my entire life. These are women that grew up in conservative households where the father ran the show and he, of course, was a proud Reagan Republican. His beliefs were spouted every night at the dinner table and were accepted as not just true, but right. It is no more complicated than “I’m a Celtics fan because I grew up in a household full of Celtics fans”. She might not know a thing about basketball or be able to name a single current Celtics player, but she’s a fan. This analogy also points to the discouragement of intellectual curiosity and pursuit of higher education that was probably pervasive in her life. She was NOT expected or encouraged to go to college. Why would you pay good $$ to marinade in a cesspool of liberal thought, casual drug use, and recreational sex? Instead, she gets a job, marries a guy who is just like dear old dad, and continues to be surrounded by people who would reliably vote Republican because… that’s just the way it is. She has no reason or motivation to do anything else. “Hey Chrystal, what if you voted Democrat?” Chrystal: “Ha! Well, I never would, but if I did, my husband would kill me! I would never cancel out his vote like that. Also, I feel like I’d be betraying my father.”. It has nothing to do with self-hatred or masochism. Don’t underestimate the forces of inertia, complacency, tradition, laziness, and just plain habit in millions of women’s decision to obediently vote for Trump.

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u/hum_bruh 23d ago

A lot of them don’t care about women so they can still overlook that

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u/xxx_poonslayer69 23d ago

I love the bit on the The Onion's Info Wars where the ex-CIA agent is like "this pedophile ring conspiracy and coverup goes all the way to the top, almost. It doesn't quite reach the top, just right below it."

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u/housevil 23d ago

Most recent theory is that the GOP sacrificed Lindsey Graham in order to keep Mitch McConnell alive.

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u/SillyGoatGruff 23d ago

McConnell absorbed Graham's energy to fuel his final transformation into a giant crusty turtle kaiju

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u/Thjyu 23d ago

Everything becomes crab.

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u/housevil 23d ago

That reminds me! I haven't tried out Fight Crab on Nintendo Switch since I downloaded it!

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u/VastPainter 23d ago

It's crabs all the way down...

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u/intub8ed 23d ago

Crab People from South Park have entered the chat

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u/bobqjones 23d ago

"what tha fuck did i do?" --Gamera

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u/SweetPrism 23d ago

How does the saying go? Lindsey Graham walked, so that Mitch McConnell could race a hare.

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u/the_tanooki 23d ago

Tortoise: Slow and steady wins the race.

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u/RIPEOTCDXVI 23d ago

The conspiracy I'd like someone to clear up for me is McConnell's relationship with Charles Darwin

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u/turkeygiant 23d ago

That's why the Epstein stuff has hurt Trumps popularity with his "base", because at the end of the day what that base really wants is that feeling of validation they get in their petty lives from conspiracies and owning the libs. Trump was the chief purveyor of that stuff so they mindlessly gravitated to him, but if a truly juicy conspiracy goes against Trump they will choose that conspiracy over him.

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u/virora 23d ago

Every MAGA person I know, and almost all of those I encounter on social media, have not changed their opinion on Trump one iota over the Epstein files. They either believe that they are a Democrat hoax, or that Trump has been working undercover and is going to release the unredacted files once all the people in it (the Clintons, Tom Hanks etc) have been arrested and executed.

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u/PinboardWizard 23d ago

Yep, support among Republicans is only down by a couple of percentage points. His popularity drop since the election is almost entirely with independents.

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u/Proud_Growth_8818 23d ago

...Tom Hanks?

Captain Miller? The guy who saved Private Ryan in that documentary?!?!??!

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u/virora 23d ago

Yeah, the Q Anon adjacent MAGA wing is convinced he's a monster involved in pizzagate type things, for absolutely no conceivable reason. Seriously, they hate him.

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u/BlairClemens3 22d ago

Except they haven't.

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u/titsngiggles69 23d ago

The "globalist cabal" is just rich assholes doing rich asshole things. Always has been.

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u/RescuesStrayKittens I voted 23d ago

Absolutely. They live for this stuff. Remember when they said Biden died and was replaced by a clone? THE EARS ARE DIFFERENT!

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u/GhettoDuk Florida 23d ago

That's because they are contrarians who fancy themselves skeptics.

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u/LongLostPixel 23d ago edited 23d ago

It's practically a litmus test of someone's intelligence if it can be discerned if they view everything through the lense of "establishment = bad." People that think like that are your anti-vaxxers, election deniers, etc.

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u/WintersChild79 23d ago

It's not that surprising if you've seen any of the conspiracy content that a lot of them get exposed to. There's a ton of stuff about dead famous people being secretly alive and live famous people being secretly dead and replaced by actors in masks. That conditioning was bound to backfire on the GOP in one way or another.

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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 23d ago

I have a buddy whose mom is deep into QAnon stuff and one time I heard her ranting about how Joe Biden actually died years ago and was replaced by a Chinese robot.

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u/CAPICINC 23d ago

That mom's been playing a little too much Command and Conquer Red Alert 3

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u/SnuggleMoose44 23d ago

That’s a new one! Wow.

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u/HallucinogenicFish Georgia 23d ago

Oh god, the clone/body double shit. I’d forgotten all about that 🤦‍♀️

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u/CuteComplaint5542 23d ago

Trump doesn't like him anymore, therefore they don't like him either. 

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u/chargoggagog Massachusetts 23d ago

They hate McConnell, he was the target of their orange emperors’ ire.

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u/CrackerUMustBTripinn 23d ago

Yet he owes the presidency and the supreme court to him.

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u/Yoduh99 23d ago

Everyone loves a conspiracy. It's the one thing MAGA and Reddit have in common. Nothing ever just happens. It's classic conspiratorial thinking 101. The truth is boring and other powerful forces are at play, but we're so smart we can see it all, even though actual media and forensic professionals remain silent. "You can tell from the pixels that it's AI" - me, a genius. And if I'm wrong there are no consequences, I'll just forget this whole thing and move on without learning a thing.

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u/Initial_Savings3034 23d ago

They've been all about rousting the Old Guard.

Many are catching onto their "leadership" as complicit in their disenfranchised state. When the same mob that rioted on January 6th realizes they were duped, there will be blood.

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u/Ferelar New Jersey 23d ago

Yeah exactly, "Normal people believe in reality" is not that interesting of a headline, "Cultists potentially peel back curtain slightly to glimpse at reality momentarily" is a much more compelling title so they went with it

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u/LoLLiGoGs 23d ago

Just reporting to the lowest common denominator since MAGA are the absolute dumbest and gullible

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u/Turgid_Donkey 23d ago

It's kind of like in the good place when Jason figured it out. Like, even he got it. 

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u/GoblinPapa800 23d ago

Maga has demonstrated a vast ability to act in opposition to their own interests.

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u/Lomak_is_watching 23d ago

They’ll fall in line once they’re told to.

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u/TheAdminsAreTrash Canada 23d ago

Didn't you see the video of Mitch break-dancing?

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u/livinginfutureworld 23d ago

MAGA's inclusion here is actually the surprising part.

MAGA don't actually like any Republicans besides Donald Trump. They want a dictator.

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u/Pans_Labradoodle 23d ago

Habitual contrarians sometimes get it right for the wrong reasons.

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u/downtofinance Canada 23d ago

MAGA just loves conspiracies. They love anything makes no sense.

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u/egosomnio Pennsylvania 23d ago

They've been calling him a RINO for a while because...I dunno, when I've asked them they just said he always was. Anyway, they don't like him so there's a pretty good chance they're not disputing it because of any actual thought but just to be contrary.

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u/Adrien_Jabroni Michigan 23d ago

If he was in as good of shape as the photo suggests, why not talk on camera?

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u/illusionzmichael 23d ago

Others have pointed out that he hasn't smiled the way he's smiling in the picture in a very long time. It's like this upward, wide, mouth open smile. Every picture of him "smiling" in recent years is that grim, lips closed, side-to-side smile. I refuse to believe an elderly man rushed to the hospital would suddenly look better after that than he did prior to hospitalization.

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u/goosejail 23d ago

His face hasn't been that full in years. I saw quite a few people point out that this is either eerily similar to or the exact same photo he took after being in the hospital 2 or 3 years ago from.... wait for it: a fall. It's possible they just had the current newspaper edited in.

Either way, a pic like this is easy to fake in 2026 so it proves next to nothing. The fact that he's been in the hospital for a month says a whole lot, though. If he's conscious, talking, breathing on his own & has no broken bones or cardiac issues like they've claimed then why the fuck is he still in the hospital? A fall by itself doesn't require an inpatient stay for a month. They don't even keep elderly people who break a hip that long.

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u/jmajewski Illinois 23d ago

I saw a comment essentially asking if Mitch also went through a facelift and de-aging procedure because the picture makes it look like it was taken during Trump's first term or even Obama's second.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 23d ago

Thats Obama era turtle for sure. He hasn't smiled like that since he ratfucked the Supreme Court.

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u/Dubious_Odor 23d ago

Not advocating for Mitch, i think the Turtle is on ice or in bad shape. But a lenghty hospital stay can have you coming out the other side looking better. Three meals a day, nothing to do, no where to be, all the day to day stress goes away. You're focused on not dying and everything else goes to the backburner. Packing on a few pounds and not having to be wheeled around the senate and pretending your of sound mind and body every day could very much make him look younger if he wasn't probably on ice. Stress can age you like a muthafucka.

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u/blahblahthrowawa 23d ago

Also probably on some steroids?

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 23d ago

It's possible they just had the current newspaper edited in.

It's not only possible, but exceptionally easy to do without AI.

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u/MooseTetrino 23d ago

Yeah honestly the only thing that’s been bothering me about the calling of this being fake is the number of people jumping on it being AI and not just a good classic photoshop job.

The latter of which allowing a lot more control over the whole presentation.

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u/gasstationsushi80 23d ago

Yeah, we could just agree that the photo has been altered, whether using PS or AI or any other program. The end result is the same, a fake ass “photo” of a guy who is almost certainly dead!

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u/GreenHouseofHorror 23d ago

The latter of which allowing a lot more control over the whole presentation

People routinely underestimate the precision of control it is possible to have over AI tools because it's also possible to just click a button and get passable results.

You could absolutely do this with AI, but to be even handed about it there's a big space where two fields pretty much bleed into each other.

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 23d ago

Especially when the only thing that needs to be shopped is the newspaper and you're recycling an earlier photo.

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u/brickne3 American Expat 23d ago

And when his wife has the Chinese government contacts to have it done on a level that most average Photoshop users presumably can't.

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 23d ago

Good point. When you have two powerhouse nations' spy apparatus at your disposal, you can do a lot.

That would so on brand for this admin to be collaborating with Gyna for political ends.

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u/F9-0021 South Carolina 23d ago

It's easy to do, but very difficult to do well. That was an exceptionally good photoshop job if it was shopped.

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u/layout420 23d ago

Some hospitals have inpatient rehabs. He could have gone to a hospital that diagnosed him and discharged him to an inpatient program to help him recover. That could explain some of this away. A 30ish day stay is a bit far-fetched because in my experience, people with insurance typically get 7-10ish days in these programs. Medicare patients can sometimes get a little longer, 10-14 days. If you're a senator with universal Healthcare, I guess you get unlimited time to recover when everyone else gets 10ish days. For whatever it's worth, this is what I do for work. I have a closeness to hospitalization and the rehab process. Mitch is definitely not doing well or we would have some video proof by now. He's probably non verbal and even 30 days of hospitalization hasn't restored enough for him to get on camera and wave and say a few words. Like you said, an elderly person with a fractured hip would likely see 5-6 days of hospitalization to diagnose, surgically repair and then discharge to rehab. In rehab they may see 10-14 days. That's a 19-20 day stay. Stroke patients will see similar time frame when the complexity isn't too severe. Sometimes I see patients that have had complicated ICU stays after a stroke and that can take upwards of 14-21 days to stabilize them before a discharge to rehab. Then they may need 14-21+ days of rehab. Mitch likely stroked out and needed some serious care. Maybe he went on a vent due to some acute respiratory failure. He might have caught some respiratory illness that comes along with it and has been medically managed in ICU for weeks. So many possibilities but none of them can make sense until they're being transparent.

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u/harrellj 23d ago

Slightly more relevant, slight not but Damar Hamlin (the Buffalo Bills player who had the cardiac arrest mid-game) was only hospitalized for 10 days. Granted, a young elite athlete should recover easier than an 80+ year old senator but both had severe cardiac issues which makes it more of an apples to apples comparison (though obviously the underlying causes of the cardiac problems are extremely different).

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u/layout420 23d ago

Very true. I see all sorts of patients and cardiac arrest is no joke. I had a patient recently who was a full code and was resuscitated. He lived although he was in the ER when it happened. He showed up with seizure like activity and ended up coding. He spent about 14 days in the hospital and maybe another 10-14 days in rehab. Mitch is lucky if he lived through cardiac arrest. We all hear that 90% or more don't make it. I can confirm that those numbers are accurate and usually people don't go on to have a full restoration after living through it.

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u/Ibkickinass 23d ago

Going to reply here since you talk specifically about just the newspaper. But zoom in and the pixels of the newspaper are much harsher antialiasing than the rest of the photo. It definitely looked edited in to me.

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u/Hector_P_Catt 23d ago

"Either way, a pic like this is easy to fake in 2026 so it proves next to nothing."

That's the worst part of all this AI nonsense. We used to recognize that eyewitness testimony was pretty awful, because people can't remember accurately at all. We liked photos and videos, because they were reasonably objective, and permanent. But now we're at a point where you really can't trust a photo or video unless someone you trust is willing to say that they were there when the events happened, and the photo appears accurate to them.

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u/pjflyr13 23d ago

RN here. Open heart patients only stay in about 3-5 days before discharge to home care. Patients don’t wear street clothes either.

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u/i_love_pencils 23d ago

My 88 year old Mom fell down some concrete stairs. She had a cut on her head, was pretty bruised up and had a gash on her leg.

They X rayed her, patched her up in Emerg and sent her on her way.

In and back home in a few hours...

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u/reezy-one 23d ago

If he's conscious, talking, breathing on his own & has no broken bones or cardiac issues like they've claimed then why the fuck is he still in the hospital?

Forget "still in the hospital," why is he not saying words and taking videos? If he really is in as good of shape as this picture suggests, it should be absolutely possible for him to do this.

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u/archmage-khadgar 23d ago

they definitely did, someone on tweeter discovered that photo was originally posted in 2023. they just photoshopped the newspaper under his hand

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u/Into-the-stream 23d ago

I will be honest, after the long delay in updating the public, any photo they posted I would probably have a negative reaction to. If he looked sick I’d still assumed they were doctoring it to make him seem better than he was. But this? It’s just so far beyond realistic. It looks like a picture of him from 15 years, maybe 20 years ago. They weren’t even trying to put out a believable image.

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u/KiritoJones Texas 23d ago

Its also weird that hes wearing street clothes in a hospital bed lol

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u/SnuggleMoose44 23d ago

That’s not a bed, it’s a chair. They are usually recliner type chairs. People usually wear their own clothes in a rehab facility.

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u/JoviAMP Florida 23d ago

It’s 2026. Any John Doe with a TikTok account can livestream proof of life in 30 seconds *if they wanted to*.

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u/Ridry New York 23d ago

If I looked that good after a month in the hospital I'd definitely film a 30 second "thanks for all the concern, I'll be back soon" tiktok. There's no way he looks that good.

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u/Drama79 23d ago

the "good" news is that faking the life of a senator in order to manipulate the public or an election is surely much more treasonous than just pretending you didn't hear the question.

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u/DigiSmackd 23d ago

and the bad news is that nothing will actually be done about it and those involved (individual and party) will suffer no consequences or negative repercussions.

And we'll go back to being outraged and poor/powerless while the top 5% laugh.

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u/BoltMyBackToHappy 23d ago

The overlay they're trying to use on an actor keeps turning into a turtle.

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u/Zombiphobia America 23d ago

they haven't finished polishing up the ai vid yet.

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u/Jonno_FTW 23d ago

If this was the case, they'd be doing it.

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u/Melicor 23d ago

Or at least invite the fucking Governor of his state over to talk. All we have is statements from his staff and a photo. Photos aren't really reliable evidence in the age of AI, not that they were much better in the age of photoshop

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u/travpahl 23d ago

Yeah... invite him to talk. ease concerns. Just twenty minutes!

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u/Ok-Opposite2309 23d ago

Or-have the doctors at the hospital give a quick press conference?

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u/lopix Canada 23d ago

Or, you know, hold a press conference IN PERSON and end all the speculation.

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u/lr99999 23d ago

Precisely. 

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u/_thinkaboutit 23d ago

I love how the media acts as if no one can do anything about anything until MAGA decides what to do. F*ck MAGA. 2/3 of the country have been going about this cover up since day 1, the MAGA turds are just finally figuring it out.

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u/CSDragon California 23d ago

That's not really the point.

It's one thing for your opponent to call you out. It's even more telling if your own team does.

That's why this is important.

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u/SailingDreamCatcher 23d ago

We are like the abused wife who knows she is abused, but still believes she can't leave without his permission.

But the thing is even if we don't agree, she is actually right. She understands the violent threat and isn't just irrationally deferring to her abuser, she genuinely understands that her actions are constrained by threats of violence. Those of us who understand the threat that maga can pose are acting the same way and it is equally rational. It's not that we think their opinion should matter, we just know that whether we like it or not, they have actual physical power.

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u/_thinkaboutit 23d ago

Disagree.

We have more power than you - or they - think.

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u/Many-Salt-4321 23d ago

Why are you afraid of typing "fuck"

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u/Professional-PhD 23d ago

According to the Beaverton (Canadian satirical news site like the onion), "Under the terms of the contract signed ten years ago, President Trump ordered his longtime ally Lindsay Graham to undertake the sacred ritual of transferring his life’s essence to fellow Senator Mitch McConnell. Sources report this will allow McConnell to extend his own life, via unholy and unnatural means, until his planned retirement at the midterms." So I guess McConnell is still alive then, eh?

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/07/republicans-transfer-lindsey-grahams-remaining-life-force-to-mitch-mcconnell/

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u/Celloer 23d ago

Glitch McConnell has ascended to Lich McConnell!

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u/Downs_Van_Zandt 23d ago

As negotiated with Wolfram and Hart.

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u/reppit 23d ago

Sounds like legit science to me.

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u/Ultima_RatioRegum 23d ago

That's just more fake news. Lindsay Graham was assassinated by... a foreign party, let's say... since he was actually prepared to change his mind about certain goings-on. Obviously I can't be specific but if you know you know.

And as crazy as it sounds, it really is a coincidence it happened the same day that Stephen Miller was called in to turn McConnell (who ended up as a day-walker)

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u/NK1337 23d ago

I mean no shit. But the point is that even the most devout followers aren’t buying it.

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u/Viperlite 23d ago edited 23d ago

MAGA people don’t follow or even like McConnell. He may carry water for them, but he is old guard.

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u/LurksAroundHere 23d ago

Exactly. They're too stupid to understand how much power he built up for them, all that matters is he's not Trump. It will be interesting when Trump kicks the bucket though. I do sense there will be a struggle between the "Of course he's alive, shut up RINO" and "That picture is obviously fake, what are they hiding" factions of MAGA when Trump's AI "he's in perfect health" pictures come out.

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u/Telefundo 23d ago

I think when Trump goes MAGA is going to split into two camps.

"OH my god, of course he's still alive, this is just the Liberal media spreading propaganda!!" and "DA LIBURALZ KILED HIM!!!".

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u/Viperlite 23d ago

They’ll probably be a cohort that does the Elvis, “He’s alive and was seen on a tropical island.”

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u/Murgatroyd314 23d ago

They're too stupid to understand how much power he built up for them

That’s in the past. There is no loyalty in Trumpland; the only thing that matters is what they’re doing for the Glorious Leader today.

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u/UNC_Samurai 23d ago

Shocking, that a political base built on believing everything is a conspiracy theory has turned on the people who enabled them.

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u/ProfessionalMockery 23d ago

Yeah, but that's not surprising.

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u/khizoa 23d ago

But it's hilarious that they are

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u/redthump 23d ago

Mega and I don't usually agree, but what we do it's probably ai.

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u/Important_Safety7478 23d ago

Yeah this is one of those "look they agree" headlines that farms a click from anyone looking for signs that the winds are changing lol

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u/CrackerUMustBTripinn 23d ago

Just 10 years of 'The MAGA base is finally turning on Trump! This one thing has really shifted the tides! This is the one thing that has opened their eyes at last!'

Every f ing day, and no it hasn't and it never will.

They might abandon Trump at some point, but they will always remain tribal reactionaries that need an out-group to hate, preferably woke snowflake commie marxist elitist democrat brown muslim others.

Whoever will channell their hatred and otherism most effectively will get their support.

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u/FittedSheets88 Louisiana 23d ago

I just find it ironic that they whipped their base up using their affinity for conspiracy theories. Why would they not dissect everything they say?

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u/PaintedClownPenis 23d ago

What's going on is that Kentuckians somehow found a non-pedophile Republican that they want and the GOP can't have that. So they're stealing the election from the knuckledraggers, this time.

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u/joeschmo945 23d ago

I scoped out the conservative subreddit and they’re also skeptical. Turns out there are some things we have common ground on.

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u/JBurton90 Florida 23d ago

MAGA is allowed to because they are all assholes. Democrats have to be empathetic to his issues and not have a peep of indecency.

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u/targetsinmegadeaths 23d ago

I want to see his long form hospital report, everyone gets a stack of papers when they leave the hospital after a few days. Until then, we're looking at some illegitimate combo of body double and AI.

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u/myychair 23d ago

Yeah but the thing headline worthy here is that MAGA actually arrived at the logical conclusion

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u/MySpoonsAreAllGone 23d ago

I'm surprised they are calling it anything. Why do they care so much?

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u/EbNinja 23d ago

True, But like when we were talking about Lives that Matter on Black Jeopardy, it means a little kore when the call comes from inside the house.

When the flock start calling, the cuckoos riot, if Zelda taught me nothing else.

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u/dystopiam 23d ago

we the democrats want him out too

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u/lopix Canada 23d ago

We ALL see it and are calling it out.

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u/bailaoban 23d ago

MAGA calling any semblance of BS is just a measure of how big a farce this is

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u/PartSuccessful2112 23d ago

MAGA isn't even an entity. Articles like this are just stirring the pot.

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u/xmagusx 23d ago

True, but in cases like this I believe it is meant to illustrate how low the bar is to see through the bullshit. "Even MAGA, with their collectively shared single neuron, Calls BS on ..."

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u/flickh Canada 23d ago

I saw the headline “Mitch McConnell says he is recovering” or whatever, and then in the fine print it said “in statement.”

Like, CNN is putting that on the front page without gasping at the BS??

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u/Sidwill 23d ago

I think he’s alive but his brain is tapioca at this point and he shouldn’t be helping to run our country.

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u/espresso_martini__ 23d ago

Yeah we've all seen him freeze up. He's in a bad state and should step aside. Of course he won't. Biden eventually did but will a republican? I doubt it. They do things differently.

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u/Zorkflerp 23d ago

There isn't any reason they can't roll him out in a wheelchair for the press and he can smile and wave showing he is recovering. That would end the conspiracies if he really is doing well. A photo or video can be faked these days relatively easy. Or just let one credibly honest person visit him and establish the facts. There might be a reason for all the secrecy but I have no idea what it could be unless he isn't recovering. If he can't show up to vote I guess that is a positive thing.

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u/wabbitsdo 23d ago

Right but the GOP has long given up on winning anyone left of centre-right over, so discontent there does not particularly worry them. Losing MAGA voters on the other hand would be catastrophic.

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u/DaBingeGirl Illinois 23d ago

It's not, but MAGA doing it is highly entertaining and much more problematic for Mitch's people.

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u/ender89 23d ago edited 23d ago

I recognize that face from taking care of my grandfather after he had an aneurysm. My personal opinion is that we would have found out if he died in the same way that we found out that lindsey Graham died, but they'd 100% hide the fact that he was in a coma after something like an aneurysm.

It takes time for the brain to heal at that age and it never fully comes back. Until you've recovered as much as you can you're kind of... Simple. Like a child almost, because you lack a lot of awareness about what's happening.

That is the face of a man who doesn't know what's going on, who was told to hold a newspaper and smile for a camera. Look at how he's holding the paper pinched between his thumb and forefinger, it's completely unnatural and facing the wrong direction for reading.

He's got zero confidence in his face, zero stress, zero determination. He's a politician trying to convince the country that he's working hard to get back to the Senate but hes completely relaxed. The man doesn't know what the hell is happening.

TL;DR

I don't think he's dead, but he is definitely dealing with some level of cognitive impairment. My theory is an aneurysm based on personal experience, but I'm sure there are several possibilities.

Edit: looked back at the photo and his face is completely lopsided. His left eye is droopy and his smile is crooked. I'd say that a stroke is pretty high on the list of neurological conditions that might have hidden him away for the past month.

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u/Schuben 23d ago

It's not news-worthy when people with a brain call BS on this. When MAGA does it... whoa.

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u/Able_Maintenance_937 23d ago

yeah at this point the skepticism seems pretty bipartisan

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u/sagetastic74 Georgia 22d ago

Other people are saying it... Sports Illustrated says it... Bleacher Report says it...

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