Hillary and the back brace
Yes, I’ve noticed all the talk about HIllary’s odd covered-up garb and whether she’s wearing a back brace underneath. Lately, her sartorial choices feature a lot of heavy garments and drapes and scarves, and there’s a bulge near the top that could easily be a back brace.
I wonder why she’d keep that a secret, though. If she’s wearing one, why not say so? There’s nothing shameful about wearing a back brace. Years ago, when I was in my 40s, a fairly large and rigid one was prescribed for me, but I couldn’t tolerate it and other doctors said it wouldn’t help me anyway.
I Googled the reasons a person would use a back brace and found nothing especially pernicious or frightening. So I just don’t get it.
Nor am I all that concerned with Hillary these days. But an awful lot of people still seem to be, don’t they?
Stilton is more concerned than you… perhaps because he asks the RIGHT questions:
“The speculation is that it’s a back brace…but from what circumstance, and why would she hide it? Then again, Hillary wasn’t exactly forthcoming about her post-Benghazi brain trauma and loss of memory, her use of prismatic glasses, her recent need for a therapeutic boot, or having her arm in a cast after taking an alleged slip (or sip?) in the bathtub.
“Oh sure, she could just be coquettish about the fact that her aging body is falling apart, but we can’t help but wonder if it’s something more sinister than that. What if Hillary is being rebuilt, piece by piece, to become a cyborg capable of being a shrill and annoying presence in future elections for the rest of eternity?!”
http://stiltonsplace.blogspot.com/2018/05/playing-brace-card.html
I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary there, bar that she’s oddly overdressed compared to others present. BTW, sensitivity to cold can be a symptom of Parkinson’s.
Hillary has been concealing health problems for a while. Who knows what that big picture looks like. Meanwhile we all know she has not given up on 2020.
So the lid stays on.
Yeah, the concern is related to her ongoing health issues since at least 2012 that her people and the media insisted were minor, despite her dramatic collapse on 9/11 and her brief, infrequent, scripted campaign appearances.
She would likely hide the back brace if it is related to a health issue that she had during the campaign that she did not disclose. She would probably also hide health issues if she still plans to run in 2020.
Neo, I know a few months ago you completely dissed my reference to Ted Noel’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s. He also noted the back brace, and again shows it’s consistent with Parkinson’s. Unless there’s an alternative diagnosis that fits ALL the symptoms she exhibits as well as Parkinson’s does, then I’m still tending to believe what Dr. Noel has put out.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/podcast-72-nine-18724632
Meanwhile we all know she has not given up on 2020.
No, she hasn’t, but satisfactory performance in the primaries in 2020 would certainly be … an innovation. The general rule is two-strikes and your out. No one’s ever run a 3d consequential campaign for the office except as an incumbent (not that Harold Stassen didn’t try).
then I’m still tending to believe what Dr. Noel has put out.
Not sure about ‘believe’, but that’s certainly an option on the table worthy of consideration. When the Rosie-Greer-sized minder appeared at her side during a public address, put his hand on her back and whispered prompt words in her ear (picked up by a hot mike), that certainly made for an odd spectacle.
physicsguy:
She has none of the classic signs of Parkinson’s. A back brace has a zillion alternative explanations; Parkinson’s is really not one of them ordinarily.
Parkinson’s certainly has a host of symptoms and some of them can be quite obscure, so I would never rule it out 100%. Just 98%.
Look at this article which goes into the postural problems connected with Parkinson’s, and the rather rare cases in which braces are used (mostly without much success). Hillary’s posture doesn’t even begin to fall into this category.
Why doesn’t she simply say that she is wearing a brace and why? Or better yet, why doesn’t she stay home and bake cookies for her grandkids?
I’m thinking Vanderleun has captured the essence of it!
expat: Hillary is completely incapable of transparency on anything, even the most mundane of items like the wearing of a back brace. It would be totally in character for her to hide such an innocuous thing because in her fevered brain her attackers could come after her over it. Of course, they are drawn to the scent of a problem by the hidden brace, and probably much more so than would have been the case if she didn’t try to hide it.
She is such an unnatural public person, it really is astounding she’s gotten this far.
What about that near-fall on the stairs in India?
Could have wrenched something in that last one where she did a big split…
But we’re never going to know the truth.
She’ll lie ’til she dies.
I doubt we need look beyond simple vanity.
She is such an unnatural public person, it really is astounding she’s gotten this far.
She repels people generally. I think partisan Democrats have pride-driven counter-reactions to this, much as Republicans unenthusiastic about George Bush rallied around him when Democratic attacks on him turned lunatic. She also represented New York in Congress absent any history of having lived there. New York has a high tolerance for carpet-bagging (though she was exceptionally thorough for a that) and a high propensity for adopting people with a ‘national’ rather than a local profile. So, it was fertile ground for her so long as New York’s Democratic Party sachems were willing to roll over (which they were). Democrats have won 42 of the last 55 statewide contests in New York and the Republicans’ win frequency has seen secular decline, with the last occurring 15 years ago.
HRC got to be senator, secretary of state, and finally during her 2nd try a presidential nominee for one reason; she rode the Slick Willy train to the White House and the national spotlight. She is done. If she’s eyeing a 2020 bitd, good luck with that. The dnc rigged it for her in 2016, there will not a be a second time.
Obviously she has medical issues, but what are they? Vegas must have odds on various conditions.
HRC got to be senator, secretary of state, and finally during her 2nd try a presidential nominee for one reason; she rode the Slick Willy train to the White House and the national spotlight. She is done. If she’s eyeing a 2020 bitd, good luck with that. The dnc rigged it for her in 2016, there will not a be a second time.
Sanders lost the popular vote. I don’t think you can attribute his losses to the DNC’s thumb on the scales.
She’s publicly prominent due to her husband. If it hadn’t been for him, it’s a reasonable wager she’d be a retired Washington lawyer with one kid and a couple of ex-husbands who’d each concluded the marriage by running screaming into the Potomac River.
It’s a given that a lot can happen between now and 2020 but if things stay the same… Hillary’s replacement is being groomed as we speak. Only a black woman can cut the ground out from under Hillary. All hail Sen. Kamala Harris, the black Hillary Clinton. Like Hillary with Bill, Kamala rode her paramour, the powerful California state politician Willie Brown to political prominence.
Art Deco:
She also represented New York in Congress absent any history of having lived there. New York has a high tolerance for carpet-bagging …
Which reminds me of Tom Lehrer’s crack:
The third Senator would be Robert Kennedy, then Senator from New York. At least Robert Kennedy spent several years in New York as a child.
While entering Grand Central Station one day, my uncle observed LBJ and RFK in a limo. The body language- LBJ wagging his finger at RFK- indicated it wasn’t a harmonious conversation.
I would love to have Hillary run again. Just like Democrats loved mentioning Hoover for 20 years.
steve walsh:
She is such an unnatural public person, it really is astounding she’s gotten this far.
Richard Nixon did a poor job of hiding his discomfort at being an introvert in an extroverts’ profession. So, Hillary wasn’t the first “unnatural public person” in politics.
But Nixon was a much more accomplished politician than Hillary. One also notes that Nixon’s books had a lot less whining compared to what Hillary has written.
RE: “I wonder why she’d keep that a secret, though.”
Because she doesn’t want to call attention to her poor state of health. She still believes that she was robed, and that none of it is her fault. Her poor health is a problem, a good reason to reject her in 2016, and a great reason for her to retire.
Because she cannot admit her failings.
Because it points to Parkinson’s disease.
RE: “She has none of the classic signs of Parkinson’s. A back brace has a zillion alternative explanations; Parkinson’s is really not one of them ordinarily.”
Parkinson’s is too rare to be called an “ordinary” cause, but posture issues appear to be common in Parkinson’s patients.
Yes, I know that you don’t believe it, and I’ve commented on your views before. I found your alternative theories about her cough, for example, less than convincing. [BTE She still has the cough, apparently.]
Even if you don’t think it’s Parkinson’s, Sec. Clinton is smart to hide her back brace. It’s another symptom that points to Parkinson’s. If she shows her back brace, she’ll have to give an explanation, but few will believe her.
kevino:
Parkinson’s is one of the least likely explanations for a cough like that. There are many other, far more likely explanations.
She has none of the classic signs of Parkinson’s. I don’t know how many times I have to repeat it. If she has Parkinson’s, it’s a VERY unusual and atypical case.
When you hear hoofbeats, think horse, not zebra.
And a back brace does not point to Parkinson’s. It is very rare for a person with Parkinson’s to wear a back brace, and when they do it’s for symptoms that Hillary has never exhibited. I put a link up to an article about it in a previous comments of mine in this thread.
A person with Parkinson’s disease has a “flat affect”–a face that lacks expression, usually lacking spontaneous big smiles. They are slow, and often walk with small steps. When their medication is in the peak range, they may have wobbly movements of the head, shoulders, and arms. Hillary does not look or act like someone with Parkinson’s Disease–certainly not like anyone who has had it for a few years. A tremor has been mentioned, but there are many other causes of tremor, and the type seen in PD has a specific look and frequency.
I am in my 70’s now and I have a number of friends in their 70’s and 80’s with varying degrees of Parkinson’s and most have tremors and pain and problems with balance however I have not seen humps or the need for an upper torso brace.
What I have seen, especially with women is dowager’s hump which can come on fast and it is a sign of advanced osteoporosis with small fractures in the vertebrae and that is a mess. Maybe she does have a hump and not a brace and whatever it is, not matter how much I dislike her as a person I don’t wish any medical problems or aging complications on the poor old lady.
My guess is that the pace she has lived and lifestyle choices are catching up with her and I will be amazed if she is in any condition to make a run for office in 2020. I think her ticket has been punched.
I have a good friend who has been diagnosed with PD for 5-6 years. We flew together the first 3 of those years, a decision he reached when he realized the meds he was taking were affecting his decision-making, especially under stress (which is almost always the case with decisions when flying gliders). SO we flew together every summer, making many very long glider flights in the great basin, earning 5 state records and logging a dozen or more flights of more than 5 hours’ duration and 300 miles distance.
He exhibited classic symptoms, including especially “pill-rolling” with his thumb and index finger. But his concern was less with the symptoms than the side effects of the daily medications. And no, he never had a back brace.
My bet regarding Hillary is with “dowager’s hump.” And even if it is a back brace, I would suspect PD less than other explanations.
I don’t wish her ill, but I really wish she would go away.
The third Senator would be Robert Kennedy, then Senator from New York. At least Robert Kennedy spent several years in New York as a child.
Kennedy actually lived in and around DC from 1953 until his death and he and his wife had their primary residence at an estate in McLean, Va. that his widow sold only about 10 years ago. Joseph Kennedy decamped to New York in 1927. Robert Kennedy’s formative years were spent all up and down the BosWash corridor without the time in Massachusetts his older brother had. If you compare recordings of John and Robert Kennedy, you’ll notice the accent of the latter is significantly different from the former. RFK’s formal address was in Westchester from 1927 to 1951 and he likely did spend about 8 years palpably present. Him running in New York was not a scandal. Him being permitted to establish a nonsense residency there to run for office while having his family holed up in Northern Virginia with him working in Washington was a scandal. Had he bought a place on Long Island in 1963 and installed his wife and children, a run for the Senate in 1964 would have been pushy but not scandalous. (His brother’s run in Massachusetts in 1962 after 5 months of working as a public prosecutor was even pushier).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WlRmK2GhXU
This is six years after Michael Kinsley’s Parkinson’s diagnosis.
We are all overthinking this. Refusal to state the truth is a simple reflex reaction for these people.
Or as the old song has it:
‘Fish gonna swim
Birds gonna fly
Clintons gonna tell a lie’
She plans to run in 2020, so any health issue must be hidden. Sure, you can literally see the brace anyway, but covering it up will fool the right people.
I believe it to be evil, consuming her from the inside.
physicsguy:
It doesn’t have to be one, there’s a possibility of multiple medical conditions. She is 70 years old, after all.
As for me, I’m sure I’ll find out more than I care to know in a few more years. She is 70 years old, after all.
Art Deco
If you compare recordings of John and Robert Kennedy, you’ll notice the accent of the latter is significantly different from the former.
I noticed a difference in RFK’s accent from The Greatest Speech Ever – Robert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King in Indianapolis and in a 1964 question and answer session with Columbia students. His 1968 speech sounded more Standard American (Midwest)- or at least more Western New England. I would find it difficult to precisely delineate the differences between RFK and JFK accents- though there is a difference.
Given that RFK made the Indianapolis speech with minimal preparation- some notes in his car on the way to deliver the speech- on a flatbed truck- he was an eloquent speaker. He didn’t need a teleprompter. Nor did he need a speechwriter. His question and answer session at Columbia shows his ability to speak off the cuff, just like he did at Indianapolis- and a with a sense of humor. Just like his brother at press conferences.
After hearing those speeches, my dislike of the Kennedys (augmented by the stories of a childhood friend who worked at the Hyannisport complex one summer) does not include RFK.
HAS SHE LEARNED NOTHING FROM JED BARTLET!?
Q: How crooked is Hillary Clinton?
A: She has to wear a back brace to stand straight.