Peter Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 I need some dark humor and the coronavirus may not be as bad as what happened to President Ronald Reagan. From Time. When President Ronald Reagan was shot on this day, March 30, in 1981, it was anything but funny. The assassination attempt by John W. Hinckley Jr. required the President to undergo surgery and seriously wounded three others. But Reagan knew it was also important to convey to the country that he was going to be OK. And — before he was told that others had been injured — he knew that humor could get that message across, perhaps better than any other official reassurance. According to TIME’s coverage of the assassination attempt, the very first thing he said to the First Lady when she arrived at the hospital was, “Honey, I forgot to duck,” a reference to a one-liner used by boxer Jack Dempsey. The magazine compiled this list of his best reactions to the shooting and his own injuries: > To surgeons, as he entered the operating room: “Please tell me you’re Republicans.” > In a written note, upon coming out of anesthesia in the recovery room (paraphrasing Comedian W.C. Fields): “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” > In another note, recalling a Winston Churchill observation: “There’s no more exhilarating feeling than being shot at without result.” > In a third note: “Send me to L.A., where I can see the air I’m breathing.” > In yet another note written while surrounded by medical staff: “If I had this much attention in Hollywood, I’d have stayed there.” > Complimented by a doctor for being a good patient: “I have to be. My father-in-law is a doctor.” > To an attentive nurse: “Does Nancy know about us?” > To a nurse who told him to “keep up the good work” of his recovery: “You mean this may happen several more times?” > To Daughter Maureen: The attempted assassination “ruined one of my best suits.” > Greeting White House aides the morning after surgery: “Hi, fellas. I knew it would be too much to hope that we could skip a staff meeting.” > When told by Aide Lyn Nofziger that the Government was running normally: “What makes you think I’d be happy about that?” And TIME wasn’t Reagan’s only admirer on the humor front: That year’s Oscars took place the following day, and host Johnny Carson joked that he wanted to call in the President to help punch up the script. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 ARE THEY MURDERING PRESIDENT TRUMP ? It looks as if the Establishment has found a way to assassinate Trump! Why didn’t Trump call in Dr. Vladimir Zelenko from New York or Dr. Didier Raoult from France?! Why is Trump being given experimental drugs and not the known safe HCQ cure? To Scott Atlas, White House coronavirus advisor from Jon Rappoport October 3, 2020 Scott: If media reports are correct, the president is receiving 2 experimental drugs: the antibody cocktail, Regeneron, and the antiviral, Remdesivir. Aside from their individual adverse effects… THESE DRUGS HAVE NEVER BEEN STUDIED FOR THEIR COMBINED EFFECTS ON A PATIENT. AND NOW THAT PATIENT…THE FIRST PATIENT RECEIVING THEM…IS THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. You know the adverse effects of Remdesivir, Scott. They’re more than worrisome. Acute kidney injury, for example. And this drug has only emergency authorization, and it’s explicitly for patients who are SEVERE COVID cases. Trump is not a severe case. What’s going on? Why are the Walter Reed doctors piling on? The other drug, Regeneron, the antibody cocktail, synthesized versions of mouse and human antibodies, is still in clinical trials. There is NO authorization for its use. In past trials of antibody drugs, highly increased infection has occurred. Very dangerous. And pray these doctors don’t suddenly opt for a ventilator. They could do that, if Trump’s condition worsens, because of the effects of the DRUGS. They will call those effects “serious COVID decline.” In a large New York study of COVID patients in Trump’s age group, 97 percent of the patients receiving ventilator treatment died. Ventilator treatment, as you know, involves heavy and prolonged sedation. The president is in a very dangerous situation. Every damn doctor who has any ethics at all should be screaming bloody murder right now. This is not supposition. Would you prescribe a patient not one, but two highly experimental drugs, each of which has very damaging effects? Would you prescribe them TOGETHER? EVER? Especially when the patient is not close to being seriously ill? Especially when the drugs’ combined effects have never been studied? WHY ARE THE WALTER REED DOCTORS TREATING TRUMP AS IF HE WERE IN DESPERATE STRAITS? They’re going after the president as if he’s hanging on to life by a thread and they have to throw everything they’ve got at him. Who is watching over the president’s life? Are these doctors trying to kill him? GET BUSY, SCOTT. NOW. unz.com/proberts/are-they-murdering-president-trump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 2 hours ago, william.scherk said: The mysteries compound ... Here's a mystery to compound things. Did an assassination attempt happen at the September 29 debate? The event plot-line. This literally happened in this sequence. 1. The White House SCOTUS nomination event happened on September 26, which is what the left is going nuts about. 2. On the day of the debate, September 29, President Trump tested negative for COVID-19. He is tested every day. 2. As Chris Wallace admitted, the Cleveland Clinic did not test Trump or Trump's people, or Biden or Biden's people as they entered for the debate. Yet they were supposed to. Instead, they used an "honor system." So it is reasonable to ask what else did they fudge re COVID-19 protocols? 3. After the debate and the normal incubation period for the virus to be able to spread in an infected person (2 days), President Trump and other Republicans who were at the debate test positive for COVID-19. It looks to me like the Debate Commission along with the Cleveland Clinic, by playing fast and loose with COVID-19 protocols, made the debate a perfect place for bad guys to infect anyone they wanted to. Where is the list of high-level Democrats getting sick? Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellen Stuttle Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: Who said Someone? You imply a Someone, Michael, with the way you frame the question. I believe that you don't believe that there is a Someone responsible for the fact of death. But then what's the mystery? You die because of the kind of organism you are - a causal explanation. It seems that you don't accept this as a sufficient answer. I do, and I don't know what more you want to find, or would accept, as an answer. Ellen PS: Anyway, the big question which is concerning me at the moment is whether or not Trump will die from the virus. I fervently hope not, probably needless to say. Looks like he's going to be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william.scherk Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: Where is the list of high-level Democrats getting sick? Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dglgmut Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Ellen Stuttle said: You imply a Someone, Michael, with the way you frame the question. I believe that you don't believe that there is a Someone responsible for the fact of death. But then what's the mystery? You die because of the kind of organism you are - a causal explanation. It seems that you don't accept this as a sufficient answer. I do, and I don't know what more you want to find, or would accept, as an answer. Ellen PS: Anyway, the big question which is concerning me at the moment is whether or not Trump will die from the virus. I fervently hope not, probably needless to say. Looks like he's going to be ok. The odds of him dying are extremely low. It also seems the strain of COVID going around lately is especially innocuous (a spike in Canada has not correlated with deaths/hospitalizations the same way as the first rise did, as well as many anecdotal accounts of COVID being a mild cold that ends with you losing taste for a day or two). If Trump were to die from COVID, I would be shocked and terrified that something sinister happened. I would also be terrified about the conflict that would inevitably ensue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 59 minutes ago, Ellen Stuttle said: But then what's the mystery? You die because of the kind of organism you are - a causal explanation. It seems that you don't accept this as a sufficient answer. Ellen, Nor do most people during almost all of human history. Religion (all religions I know of) springs from this mystery at root. So does philosophy. Rand even dealt with it. She did it so she could dismiss it and move on to other things, but she did deal with it. She didn't tell people the question itself was odd or imply it was an indication of an inferior kind of mind. Only at a climax point in Galt's speech (to my knowledge) did she come out with something like: don't tell me you are curious about a different existence. You are interested only in this one. Now own it. Those were not her words, but that was her message. (One other item I have to look up for accuracy of text.) Frankly, that convinces no one except those who think this way. Normally she blasted the answer to this question, which she called mysticism, but she rarely blasted the question itself. She was even tender with Phil Donahue when she was telling him, when he asked something about dying, "Don't you see? You are not there anymore. You are just not there." It was something like that in one of the interviews. And the tenderness in her voice jumped out at me because it was so out of character for her. And just to be a pain in the ass, answer me this. Why am I the kind of organism I am? You just told me I die because that is the kind of organism I am. So why am I that kind of organism? People ask these questions and look for answers. They want to know--something. Not just fuggedaboutit. It's a dumb question and you are dumb for asking it. The drive to ask these question is part of the Law of Identity of humans if you want to use a Randian frame. "But I don't do that," you might say. Well, having two legs and two arms are part of the Law of Identity for humans, too. And a person with only one leg might say, "But I don't have two legs. Am I not human?" And here we come to categorizing what is normal and what are exceptions. That's Popper-ville. He says if you find one exception, the category is invalid. Why? Because you cannot predict the future 100% of the time with categories that admit exceptions. So the choice here is, one either looks at ALL of human history, including the world around us right now and think: Wow. A lot of people are asking this question about dying. I mean, most. Even in communist countries--they do religion on the sly and risk punishment or death, too. And when that doesn't apply, most worship the state. Or one thinks: This doesn't make any sense to me. What's the big deal? Thus this is not part of the human condition (which we can call the Law of Identity for what is normal). I happen to use the category with exceptions way of learning about the world and organizing my thinking, including learning about myself. To go current (since everything is racist these days), I think black people have dark skin. That doesn't change when I meet a light-skinned person who says, "I'm actually a black person," and proves it with DNA. I just think: There's an exception. And it won't make me think the idea that black people have dark skin is silly. Dark skin is normal for black people. If one wants to promote Rand's ideas, I can't think of a quicker way to turn off people than tell them the questions they are asking--for their own sense of meaning and happiness--are irrelevant. Especially if they are asking normal questions for a normal human to ask. Religions don't do that. They can get weird, but they don't do that. Notice that religions persist in all human societies at all times despite all the complaints of scientists and those who think religion is silly. Oodles of scientists, for that matter, believe in a religion. Why? Maybe it's because of the kind of organism they are. So what's the mystery? (Sorry, I couldn't resist. ) Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Ellen Stuttle said: Anyway, the big question which is concerning me at the moment is whether or not Trump will die from the virus. I fervently hope not, probably needless to say. Looks like he's going to be ok. Ellen, As you can see, I'm all over this. I have seen no indications of President running a risk of dying from COVID-19 other than the normal low odds for everyone in his situation. I have heard people who like to speculate in a tone of certainty and present their speculations as fact say he runs a high risk as they make up unverifiable stories that contradict what people see and the doctors (and Trump and his peeps) say. Most all of these speculators-with-certainty I have seen are well-known to have an anti-Trump agenda and are also well-known for lying on purpose to advance their agenda. (See the people involved in the 4 years of the "muh Russians" hoax for referents.) Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 38 minutes ago, william.scherk said: Yes. Heh. How's that for compounding the mysteries? I didn't ask a yes or no question, but yes was the answer. Ah, the sweet mysteries of life... Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Back to the election tournament per se, where does this happen among the Biden supporters right now? Even online? Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatGuy Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 5 hours ago, Peter said: But the Real Clear Politics no toss-up poll is looking dismal for President Trump: 375 electoral college votes for Biden and 163 for Trump. Screw the polls. MSK's suggestion is a good one; don't get caught up in the mainstream's attempt to demoralize us and to bring us down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: Ellen, Nor do most people during almost all of human history. Religion (all religions I know of) springs from this mystery at root. So does philosophy. Michael Philosophy ~explains~ the "mystery" to one (else what good is it?). The absolute truth is, to the universe, there's no value in life and particularly human life, we are as useful and incidental as a lump of rock or volcano or Black Hole, and as valueless. Without A Valuer. So "value" was a construct of mankind along with 'purpose' and 'meaning'. I think you start enjoying living - totally - the moment you realize - fully - that there will be an end to it, there's no let off, in time you will die. And "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees" (and die all the same). All implicitly in keeping with Objectivism, I venture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 And all the best of health and success to President Trump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william.scherk Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 3 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: It looks to me like the Debate Commission along with the Cleveland Clinic, by playing fast and loose with COVID-19 protocols, made the debate a perfect place for bad guys to infect anyone they wanted to. What were the protocols (mask up, mask on, mask off) and who failed to abide by them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 Let's here from President Trump himself about how he feels. It's about 4 minutes. As always, he says he's fighting for us, not just himself. Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatGuy Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 6 hours ago, Peter said: What will happen within the next 30 days of campaigning? Will people vote for an ailing President Trump, perhaps sensing (or knowing) the President will not recover and Vice President Pence will become be the interim President? Woah, there, Undertaker, slow down the hearse... "Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatGuy Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 6 hours ago, Peter said: But the Real Clear Politics no toss-up poll is looking dismal for President Trump: 375 electoral college votes for Biden and 163 for Trump. 6 hours ago, Peter said: What will happen within the next 30 days of campaigning? Will people vote for an ailing President Trump, perhaps sensing (or knowing) the President will not recover and Vice President Pence will become be the interim President Does this look "dismal"? It look like devotion, to me. "President Trump Supporters Outside of Walter Reed Medical Center" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william.scherk Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 6 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: Where is the list of high-level Democrats getting sick? Who was the first among us to report "NPR"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 It's personal. This lady, Anna, is not just one person. She is one of a tidal wave of people across the nation. Quote BREITBART NEWS: Why are you here out supporting the president? ANNA: Because when half of out country did not have anyone to speak for them, Donald Trump had the courage and backbone, despite persecution, to speak for us. and have commonsensical stances on major issues that we were not represented with. So, the least we can do, when he’s suffered so much to represent us, is to come out here and let him know that the love for him is so great and we don’t always have the media megaphone, like hatred does. But we’re enormous. We love him. To give someone a voice is a very personal thing. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give someone, and he’s given half of our country that. And... (choking up)... I'm sorry... It’s personal. The love for him is personal. And when people attack his presidency they attack my voice and my vote, which is my most sacred freedom as an American. So this is personal. I consider him family at this point. Trump 2020. BREITBART NEWS: If you could talk to Trump right now, what would you tell him? ANNA: Thank you so much for what you’ve gone through on behalf of me and so many Americans. (Cars Honking and people yelling in celebration) As you can see, the love for you is enormous, and there’s not even words to say thank you enough. You’re not just my president. You’re an American hero, and we love you so so much. This is what it out there. This is what makes people show up to vote. Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brant Gaede Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 21 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: TG, There is a storytelling convention called the "This Is Why You Suck Speech." (btw - I got that from TV Tropes. ) Ayn Rand wrote the second mother of all such speeches with Galt's radio speech. The Book of Job is the original mother speech. And, frankly, it's the better of the two. Rand did a great lead up with AS, but the radio speech climax itself lacks strong emotion and sounds condescending during most of it. It's much too long for that emotional tone. That's why it comes off as boring to readers and, when asked, many admit they skip through it. The Book of Job is full of despair, stubborn commitment, perplexity, and so on during the lead up, and at the climax from God, righteous anger. That, to me, is how to tell someone they suck and nail the message. Those who need to write a This Is Why You Suck Speech would do well to study The Book of Job. Literature-wise, it's among the best ever produced in all of mankind's history. Michael For me the greatest speech qua literature is that of the Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov. --Brant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 3 hours ago, william.scherk said: ... who failed to abide by them? Everybody. The Dems constantly fail to abide by them behind closed doors. It's always all over the news, too. Because they keep getting busted. Instances galore. Pictures galore. The other day a hot mic caught some news anchor or other talking about having to put the mask on as "political theater." It's constant. They are disciples of the One True Way of the Mask only when they know they are in front of cameras. Pelosi was caught at a beauty salon without a mask, then complained she was set up. She didn't complain that she fucked up and broke protocol in public. She complained she was set up and got caught. It goes on and on and on. Do I really need to say all this? Don't you consume the news? 1 hour ago, william.scherk said: Who was the first among us to report "NPR"? Who cares? Who is attacking and pretending to be goody-goody two-shoes when they are guilty as all hell themselves? The Democrats, of course. And you ask who goes first? Where are we now? Kindergarten? ("He's a poopoo head because he hit me first... Did not... Did... Did not... Did... Poopoo head... No, you're the poopoo head..." ) Where is the list of high-level Democrats getting sick? Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatGuy Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 6 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said: t's always all over the news, too. Because they keep getting busted. Instances galore. Pictures galore. The other day a hot mic caught some news anchor or other talking about having to put the mask on as "political theater." It was PA state rep Wendy Ullman and Governor Tom Wolf.https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-pennsylvania-lawmaker-masks-political-theater 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 16 minutes ago, Brant Gaede said: For me the greatest speech qua literature is that of the Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov. --Brant Brant, I keep trying to read that book, then falling into something else. But I intend to read the entire thing. I keep hearing great things about that speech. I'm not sure it's a "This Is Why You Suck" speech, though. I'll only know for sure once I read it. Francisco's money speech in AS is a good "This Is Why You Suck" speech. Toohey's You Suck speech to Peter Keating was good, too. But, to me, Rand's most emotionally powerful You Suck speech was in her story where a woman is sleeping with a powerful man in order to get money to take care of the man she really loves. It was the only way because of Communism. The powerful man is deeply in love with her, but then he finds out. When confronted, she lets him have it with both barrels right in between his eyes. (We The Living and, if I remember correctly, Red Pawn--I think I remember a You Suck speech outline or something when I read it years ago.) And in flipping this convention on its head, after Dagny and Hank slept together for the first time, each one did a "This Is Why I Suck" speech that was an "I Love You" speech in disguise. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 3 hours ago, ThatGuy said: Does this look "dismal"? It look like devotion, to me. Multiply devotion times electoral votes. And I must add, I would cry if he died. When Reagan was President so many fans of Rand going back to my days at UVA . . . were so derisive about Ronald, it made my blood boil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Stuart Kelly Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 Question me this. What is the first thing a Biden supporter thinks when seeing something like the following? The answer is easy. He or she thinks: They are not wearing masks! Shame on them! Now what do I and others think? That's easy, too. Damn! Every single person out there was recently a Democrat. And now they are voting for Trump and marching in public about it. I wonder if this thought ever occurs to Biden supporters... Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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