According to White House visitor logs reviewed by the New York Post, Dr Kevin Cannard, a Parkinson’s disease expert at Walter Reed medical center, met with Dr Kevin O’Connor, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who has treated the president for years.

The visit took place at the White House residence clinic on 17 January. Cannard has visited the White House house eight times since August 2023. On seven of those visits, most recently in late March, he met with Megan Nasworthy, a liaison between Walter Reed and the White House.

    • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      The level-headed part of me says, this is the media doing what the media does, harping on the juicy story, scandal and court politics of the leadership. Then there’s the conspiracy theory part of me that sees the late debate time, the press suddenly turning against Biden, all the talk of finding a replacement coming out of voices that usually wouldn’t entertain such violations of the standards and norms, and wonders if there isn’t some orchestration going on. Like, if Biden does end up getting the boot and another candidate gets the nom in his place, there’s gonna be some immediate suspicion that they were in on some plan, if not the mastermind, to oust Biden.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        isn’t some orchestration going on.

        Coincidence can be weird. But it’s very hard for me to believe this Parkinson’s story breaks only due to the hard work of journalists and that it coincidentally happened after the debate and after Biden made it clear he has zero intention of resigning. Somebody with access leaked this.

        • BigBoyKarlLiebknecht [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          Looking back at the last 7 years and how UK politics went from Corbyn being an accidental “joke” leader of the Labour Party to a scenario where the British security state installed a government through a deal with the fascist Reform Party. Given these events, I’m now inclined to believe almost anything.

      • NapoleonBlownApart [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        The DNC is trying to remain in control of the process no matter what happens. If they can feinstien Biden, they will do it. If he dies, drops out, or is otherwise removed, they will get to hand pick the next candidate. That person will have a hard time winning, but who knows?

        I was listening to trillbillies today and they were talking about how he’s worth more dead, because they could have kamala come out and give a “win one for the gipper” speech and everyone gets to save face.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          There’s a reason they cancelled the primaries in a bunch of states, despite Marianne Williamson, RFK jr and Dean Phillips not having a chance to challenge the incumbent (at least not in a media environment that wouldn’t platform them). They didn’t want to even take that tiny risk because they know he’s in a bad state.

          • NapoleonBlownApart [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            5 months ago

            As little as I think was accomplished by the “undecided” movement, it was at least funny. It was also the first shot over the bow that hopefully got normies thinking outside of the box.

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              Uncommitted beat all of those candidates when it comes to delegates, and yeah, that’s hilarious.

      • Sasuke [comrade/them]@hexbear.netOP
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        my dull explanation is that the debate was just so bad that it was undeniable to everyone watching that there’s something horrifically wrong with biden’s brain. then stories and speculations about biden’s mental decline immediately starting gaining clicks and views, and the media, in their chase for profit, responded in turn

        i also think some of the journalist and media people who threw their weight behind the ‘biden has to go’ camp are now personally miffed that biden is refusing to step down. like it’s sorta become an ego/reputational thing for them too

      • Owl [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        There’s no central orchestration: there are journalists trying to guess what their editors will publish, and editors trying to guess what their investors want, and both cribbing their notes from think tanks, and think tanks trying to guess what their investors will want, and investors trying to guess what’s in their best interest. Every single step of that is composed of many separate groups of people, who aren’t linked to the other layers in a consistent way. Every person involved thinks their group is the most important and most informed, and every one is high on their own ideology, and nobody knows what’s going on. And buried in there, there are many conspiracies with motivations from swaying the election, to getting a particular guy promoted, to implementing evangelical conservative rule, and those conspiracies all believe they’re important and capable of doing their thing, even though most of them can’t, and they’re all too high on their own ideology to know what’s going on either.

        • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          Most likely, as I said, that’s what my level headed brain says. One of those, the chaos of the strands of grass swaying in the breeze suddenly resemble a face for a moment, and lizard brain wants to see that as an actual face.

      • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        They’re damned either way, since they did a conspiracy of silence on how bad his health was for all these preceding years. Might as well rip the bandaid off to keep the ship stable for their livelihoods.

      • duderium [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        I’ve been asking this question too because I also don’t understand it. Biden has been incoherent for years. He (or his handlers) does/do whatever the bourgeoisie wants. As shitty as he is, whoever replaces him will probably have a worse chance of winning than he has. These people also don’t want trump to win. So why are they suddenly doing this? Yes, the debate was bad, but nine months of genocide is so much worse, and they are totally oblivious to that. If they had wanted to get rid of him earlier, he would have had a serious primary challenger. My only guess is that it’s Palestine. Maybe the bourgeoisie are so concerned with Israel that they want to forget about Ukraine and divert everything they’ve got to Israel. This means letting Trump win and sacrificing Biden the way they sacrifice everyone else.

        • CommunistBear [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Yes, the debate was bad, but nine months of genocide is so much worse

          To the average American who thirsts for blood, I honestly doubt that. Supporting death and destruction is an American past time. Looking weak and addled is the worst option.

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        The previous holding-off-on-killing was 1000% orchestrated, so now that it’s fallen through, there’s a flood of potential stories they weren’t publishing before.

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      /r/politics seems to be getting a lid on it again. I mean, there are still lots of stories being posted that show Biden’s decline, but the people agreeing with Biden needing to step down are starting to end up in controversial again.

      I’m waiting for another really bad story so people can go back to verbally bodying them. Even though I’m banned over there, the catharsis is delicious

      • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        all the “pro-biden staying in” people are regurgitating the same talking points too

        some are straight demanding loyalty, silence, and “getting in line” to “protect democracy”

        the irony is delicious i love watching libs implode even if it’s probably mostly people on payroll yelling at random dems lol

        • NapoleonBlownApart [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          I love watching the tide turn. All the people being like “no. Just stop. We all saw it with our own eyes. Stop with the gaslighting.”

          I love watching the same glib responses they love so much being thrown in their face. I’ve noticed the “end of democracy” line disappearing from libs defenses. I wish I saw more people saying “this is a piss poor way to defend democracy”

          I love that BlueMaga and Blue Trump are going mainstream. It would be a great time to recruit for hexbear-retro but alas, I am banned from every corner of reddit for saying the stuff that is now super popular over there.

    • MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      Almost exactly the way the Tories suddenly collapsed in UK when the media just suddenly decided to notice all the damage and corruption one day. Almost like the deep state, with their corporate media owners, decided that the incompetence was too risky to continue.

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        It’s ridiculous how the media will just pick sides like that. In the UK they also collectively decided to overlook Starmer’s obvious deficiencies and appointed him the next Prime Minister before the election was even called.

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    We just need Biden to hold on a little longer. I’ve decided that Biden staying and then losing is the funniest outcome now. And it will be even funnier when the libs blame the left for it.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    I just did a search for Parkinson’s at Bluesky. There are extra-large serves of hedging and copium.

    EVEN if this diagnosis is correct, which is a huge IF, the ableism shows in the pants-wetting tone. Anyone who has seen a friend or family member with Parkinson’s knows that cognitive decline almost never presents for decades, well after the physical symptoms leave the patient almost incapable.

    -–

    Well at least Parkinson’s can be treated, unlike fronto-temporal dementia which is the standard armchair diagnosis for TFG.

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    i think it’s highly unlikely Biden has Parkinson’s but if he did, it would be disgusting to refuse to vote for him on that basis

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    If you have actual evidence that Biden has Parkinson’s like e.g., lab results, put up, if you only have speculation however degreed, shut up. This is actually really easy.

    They blocked the person so the original post can’t be seen.

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    This is because he just signed a Parkinson’s bill isn’t it.

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    FFS even if he DOES have Parkinson’s that doesn’t in and of itself make him unfit for office.

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    Kremlimology about whether the President secretly has Parkinson’s. Why don’t you fucks just watch the West Wing and leave the politics to the grown ups?

  • AernaLingus [any]@hexbear.net
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    I actually happened to talk to a neurologist about this today and they didn’t buy Biden as having Parkinson’s (apparently his gait doesn’t match, gait analysis being a key diagnostic indicator of many neurological conditions). They’re also a major lib, so it could be pure cope, but it sounded like a straightforward medical assessment to me and they’re not the type to bullshit me. And for what it’s worth, I just checked and even the doctor they had on Fox News said the same (he speculated it might be vascular dementia).

    I don’t think the specific medical diagnosis matters that much, though. It doesn’t take a neurologist to see that Biden’s not playing with a full deck of cards, and he’s clearly getting worse and not better. And obviously his camp is never going to release results of a cognitive evaluation because it would mean they could no longer lie through their teeth about his fitness for office.