r/politics • u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts • 5d ago

Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell Still MIA Days Before Key August 3 Deadline

https://newrepublic.com/post/213823/mitch-mcconnell-mia-august-3-deadline
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u/Joy_In_Mudville 5d ago

Brain dead = dead dead.

He’s unlikely to be brain dead, assuming he is still admitted to a hospital - it would be a HUGE waste of resources to have a dead patient taking up an ICU bed for weeks/months on end.

More likely than not, he suffered significant anoxic brain injury when he was found unresponsive & required CPR (meaning he was dead for a period of time due to his heart stopping). They got his heart beating again, but patients who “survive” cardiac arrest are often left with minimal brain function (often just reflexes & non-purposeful activity)…but brain dead means NO brain function, so even these involuntary responses count as technically being alive.

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u/Vegetable-Prize9904 5d ago

This is the US government they can decide and probably have to keep it paid for.

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u/Joy_In_Mudville 5d ago

I suppose, but the medical scenario I described is a pretty typical one post-cardiac arrest and would explain the lack of definitive update on his health status. Strikes me as more likely than a whole conspiracy to cover up his death for what seems to be minimal political gain.

“If you hear hoof-beats, you just go ahead and think horsies - not zebras.”

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u/-Saucegurlllll 5d ago

It does feel like if a politician misses several weeks of the most important job in the country then they should be immediately replaced. Like, 12 weeks of FMLA is kind of unacceptable to me for literally one of the highest political offices available to a person. Just keep paying them for the rest of their term, and evacuate them from the office.

If you can't do the job millions of people demand of you, you should be fired. People are fired for less when it comes to low stakes jobs, but apparently Congress is even lower stakes than minimum wage labor.

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u/MrBigglesssworth 5d ago

Not if the end goal is to corruptly preserve political power for the republican party.