Mixing medicine and politics: the gender flap

Can't let a line of B.S. thrown out by the Clintonians as blatant as this this pass unnoticed.

Hat tip to MsGrin

The Shill...ooops, I misspelled that again, printed a medical article about "sexist attacks"

Very little has been said about how her insistence on toughing it out until a sick day was unavoidable is not simply the American way, but an American woman’s way of navigating gendered health dynamics in the United States.

What is gendered "health dynamics"? This is not a medical issue but a sociological issue. There is an underlying reservoir of anti-feminist dogma, particularly coming from the Repugs: the main example being the fight to destroy Planned Parenthood, an organization that does a great deal of good and no known harm physically.

"Toughing it out on a sick day"? For the "average woman", whomever she may be the writer is absolutely correct. Many of them have no choice but to appear at work when sick, partly due to wages not equalling their male counterparts for the same work, and partly due to the additional burdens of being head of household. But we are not talking about "women" generically. The woman referred to in the post is Hillary Clinton. And she is not out on the campaign trail trying to make a living. She is trying to be president of the United States. Whatever is driving her to do so has nothing to do with money or any self-imposed imperative other than "it's my turn".

Publicly expressing weakness is not Hillary Clinton’s default mode.

On the contrary, Hillary is publicly repressing weakness. These health weaknesses as I have explained many time before do not concern merely a minor cold, arthritis, or fibromyalgia. The weaknesses--it is plural--when strictly confining ourselves to health matters, instead of political issues--if true as I think they are, would diminish or nullify any conceivable competency in running a country.

Then the author offers two deflections from the real issue--the real issue is whether Hillary is mentally competent to do the job.
The first deflection is about a Trump diatribe allegedly about all women, or perhaps just against Hillary. Totally irrelevant to the point.

The second deflection is even more off-base:

That said, this notion of women’s fragility did not cover working class women of color, who have been expected to work, particularly in caring professions, without the benefit of paid sick leave. Only recently have some domestic care workers have started to receive paid sick leave, primarily at the state level.

We are not concerned with Hillary being of the working class; she is of the millionaire class. We are not concerned with Hillary's health or lack thereof because she is a woman of color. She is not in the "caring professions" because if she were, she wouldn't have encouraged and/or started wars killing millions and displacing millions more from their own home and comfort. As president of the U.S., Hillary would not have to worry about paid sick leave--she would get paid no matter what.

The obligation to prove one is “tough enough” continues to fall disparately on women candidates from Clinton’s generation.

HRC is not just any woman candidate, she is THE woman candidate aspiring to the presidency. If Jill Stein were to have the same medical problems (which, of course, she doesn't) I doubt that the several million, male as well as female, would support her.

In what assumably is to be an article about a specific woman, Hillary Clinton, comes this next fallacy:

A second stereotype was used repeatedly by corporations called to defend their all-male patterns of hiring and promotion: that women “didn’t really want to be…[a manager, an executive, a leader], illustrating significant discomfort with ambitious women.

Hillary really wants to be President. She would not be hired by a corporation (or at least as yet, because so far the U.S. is not a corporation). "Significant discomfort with ambitious women"? Nuts! California's two Senators are women. Even Hillary herself was a Senator--if being a Senator is not politically ambitious, then what is?

After another paragraph length non-sequitur, the author writes:

Certainly letting the world know we are sick is not the best illustration of our qualifications for the job we seek.

Once again, Hillary is not EveryWoman. She is hiding the fact that she has serious neurological disorders which most likely disqualify her from any elective office.

Now another non sequitur:

And yet overall women live longer than men. To quote Harvard Medical School, “When it comes to health, men are the weaker sex throughout life.”

Statistically this is true. But we are not talking about a statistic applicable to the female gender as a whole. We are concerned, or should be concerned, with the specific person referred to in this opinion piece: Hillary Clinton.

The next excerpt is not only incorrect but makes me laugh:

Despite the display of “fragility” as she stepped into a waiting car last Sunday

Millions of people saw Hillary fall limply into her black ambulance on 911. Further the author buys into the "pneumonia story", which really is a deflection from my main point.

The last excerpt from this "talking point" OP is as illogical as the prior article:

While the taking of such sick time is routinely perceived to be “for wimps,” it appears that Clinton’s health strategy – seeking care and taking time off the trail this week -- is the more prudent one, at least when it comes to longevity.

1. The president can have 24 hour a day, 7 day per week medical care available in the White house, if she or he so chooses.

2. The second point relates simultaneously to validity and judgement. Hillary did not take time off from the campaign trail until she was publicly shamed for not doing so. By continuing her campaign she illustrated enormously bad judgement. She didn't take her doctor's advice, because she felt it was "no big deal". Then she exposes a 6 year old child to "pneumonia".

A. If she really had pneumonia and was on antibiotics for 48 hours: was the pneumonia bacterial--if so was the antibiotic the correct one based on culture and sensitivity testing to the suspected pathogen? If this was not the correct antibiotic, the HRC purposefully exposed a small child to an infectious illness.

B. If it was a viral pneumonia, the vast majority are spread by droplets, which includes droplets in exhaled air Hillary blew in in the child's face as she talked.

This entire article is a sham. Although the writer makes many valid points about gender discrimination in health and social matters, when broadly applied to ALL women, her arguments completely fail when applied specifically to ONE woman, namely Clinton.

What lesson is learned from this article's critical review besides the obvious don't believe everything you read lesson. It is an even more disappointing one. This analysis of mine spends demands more mental effort than Jane or Joe Q. Citizen is willing to spend on the issues. Our problem, here, is as our Progressive community tries to use objective standards by which to judge issues, we are in a tiny minority. Our problem, not just mine, is how make these fallacious contributions to the Hill understandably fallacious to Jane or Joe?

Unless we can solve this communication conundrum, I fear progressivism is doomed to minority status. The one person who successfully communicated truth to power has been effectively neutralized.

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riverlover's picture

it bleeds from her pores. Funny, I can't think of more than once that I have thrown that card.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Bollox Ref's picture

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

travelerxxx's picture

I watched that video you posted, Bollox Ref. After it was over, I clicked on it, hoping to go to youtube to see a larger version than the embedded one. Rather then your video, I instead got this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9E6PlCLCYg

Which happened to be a new video from Dr. Noel discussing the "everything's peachy" medical report from Hillary's doctor, Dr. Bardack. As you might imagine, he's finding serious issues with what's stated by Hillary's doctor.

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Alligator Ed's picture

Except for one minor quibble, which is too much like "inside baseball" for a general audience, I concur with his points:

Normal pulse oximetry as you age drops, although I have to take Dr. Noel's word for the rate of decline

TSH measurement is the standard of care for monitoring thyroid status. T3 is one of the two active forms of thyroid hormone, the other being T4. These levels can be separately identified on blood tests. But the fact remains that TSH measurement is the standard of care for monitoring thyroid function whether supplements are given or not.

Blood pressure of 100/70 in a 68 year doesn't bother me. Many of my elderly patients, especially female had blood pressures in that range. Now if that BP measurement was taken after 5 minutes of gentle aerobic exercise, such as walking, then I would be concerned about 100/70. Assuredly for purposes of a non-cardiologist physical examination, mild aerobic stress is not part of the general internal physical examination.

One would however expect a patient with a sub-acute pneumonia to have a more rapid respiratory rate than 18--especially one >60 years old.

Then comes confusion: Either Dr. Bardack erred in calling a cardiac calcification index a CTA (computed tomography angiogram) test, she was mistaken. Those cardiac indices are obtain with non-contrast imaging. Now as lung cancer can cause frequent coughing maybe Hillary should have had a real CTA, a test which might show hypervascularity often indicative of cancers.

How did Dr. Bardack arrive at the conclusion that Hillary is in excellent medical condition? Did she administer the Mini-Mental State Examination or the Montreal Cognitive assessment?

Due to syncope or near-syncope (the swoon) on 911 why did Dr. Bardack not perform and report the results of a current electrocardiogram? Why did she not perform postural changes in BP, checking for orthostasis--inability to main BP with postural changes (usually from sitting to standing)?

Once again, Dr. Bardack release medical propaganda.

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TheOtherMaven's picture

or crashing from having been "feel-gooded" up the yin-yang? Or about to have a "pneumonia" "relapse"? Or what?

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

ThoughtfulVoter's picture

Hard night Saturday night?

Her make-up artist and hairdresser have Sunday off?

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Bollox Ref's picture

"feel-gooded" up the yin-yang?

I think Bill prefers the living.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Yeah, she looks and sounds like she is on Quaaludes. Hahaha.

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Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

static2.politico.com_.jpg

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Bollox Ref's picture

day after day, I'd understand that photo.

But she doesn't.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Like we're watching Hillary slowly wasting away.

But this difference is, her own ambition is what's doing the poisoning,

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

for the coat; that color of blue is becoming to dark brunettes only. Also, Mrs. Clinton has never photographed well.

Even so, she makes me think of someone on a treadmill who can't figure out a way off.

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Mary Bennett

TheOtherMaven's picture

but then, I used to be a dark brunette (lo these many years ago) Smile

The video is even more disquieting than still photos. She seemed way out of it, and if Huma(?) wasn't crouching behind her to catch her if she fell over backward, I have no idea what she was doing there.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

gulfgal98's picture

I do not know what is wrong with her, but she looks like she is zombied out on drugs or something. I know some folks here have complained about the speculation over her health, but the American people deserve to know if the person who may become the next President is physically fit enough to serve. We here know she is not ethically fit to serve, but many people do not know that about her. There have been too many things happening and by her appearances, she does not look well. She may be fighting pneumonia, but there is something else going on that the previous events do not explain.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Pricknick's picture

Though I had really hoped you were going to mention how much medication it requires to not want to kill, or severely choke the living crap out of the majority of politicians.
I still want to, but a nice sativa chills me out and helps me tolerate the absolute insanity of this election cycle.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Pres carter: collapsed while running; had to fend off the mad rabbit.

Candidate Reagan: had to deal with questions about his age.

Not a one of them was a woman.

I said this in a comment & I'll say it again here. The only one adhering to outdated ideas of "toughness" and "not appearing weak" is Hillary & her campaign. If she didnt want to appear "tough" she could have voted against the Iraq war. She could have regretted the 9/11 thing on the advice of her dr...but no. She didn't want to appear weak, so she practically fell flat on her face, then her campaign lied about why.

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ThoughtfulVoter's picture

And if she was smart, she would have started her antibiotic on Friday rather than waiting to start it after she collapsed that Sunday. (Go back over her words after she was back on the campaign trail on Thursday.) If indeed pneumonia was the issue!

The idea of powering through being sick is only a post event excuse! She was out that day because whatever caused her to fall wasn't pneumonia, but another intermittent and unexpected condition IMHO. But because it did happen and someone fortunately caught it on film, they have to retrospectively label it as something other than what it was to throw the voting public off the trail.

Hillary says she'll be releasing more medical records very soon...but didn't she say that about her speech transcripts too?

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Bollox Ref's picture

who doesn't start a course of antibiotics immediately after medical recommendation.

Then again, if she didn't/doesn't have pneumonia, why bother.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

with twitching face, droopy eyes, head bobs and laughing outbursts,staggering up stairs, falling out, I would lose every client I had, and would likely get a visit from the State Bar to assess my fitness to practice.
And the same thing would happen if I were a man.
I would like to have just 1 day in the media without a fucking reminder Hillary is a female.
It wasn't a deal when she was a senator, not as SoS.
It isn't for Stein, and wasn't for the Draft Liz Warren crowd. There is a double standard all right.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

that a MickeyD order taker or a WallyWorld cashier who exhibited those symptoms would be out on her (or his) tush forthwith.

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Mary Bennett

Centaurea's picture

The obligation to prove one is “tough enough” continues to fall disparately on women candidates from Clinton’s generation.

That, right there, tells me that the Dems and Hillary are getting worried about the demographic base they've taken for granted, namely Boomer and Silent women. Got to dog whistle them back to the fold. That quote is all dog whistle focused on women over the age of 60 (of which I am one, myself).

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

riverlover's picture

I, of the same demographic, had not picked that up. But I tend not to respond to dog whistles.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

snoopydawg's picture

reading or hearing?

As the most successful U.S. female presidential candidate to date

For one thing, isn't she the only FIRST US female presidential candidate?
But exactly what things has she done to deserve this statement?
Because she is a lawyer, was FLOTUS, a senator and the Secretary of State?
How many times has she had to say that she made a mistake?
It was a mistake to vote for the Iraq war, but how many years until she admitted that?
It was a mistake to not recognize same sex marriage.
It was a mistake to use a private email server.
It was a mistake to go out in public while having pneumonia.
It was a mistake for the DNC to back the most untrustworthy candidate ever and steal the election from the one person who could have beaten Trump be a wide margin.

Edit to add:
My bad about what I wrote about Hillary and being the first female presidential candidate.
But I stand by why is she the most qualified? Smile

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

But way to diss Ferraro & Palin.

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Cachola's picture

But neither Geraldine Ferraro nor Sarah Palin were.

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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

Centaurea's picture

It depends on how you define "female presidential candidate". If you're limiting that to women who've been nominated by one of the two major political parties, you'd be right that Hillary is the only one. But historically there have been numerous other women who've run for the office of president..

Shirley Chisholm in 1972 immediately comes to mind. As a newly-minted 18-year-old right after 18-year-olds were given the right to vote, I cast my very first vote in a presidential race for her, in the Louisiana primary. The winner of the LA primary, George McGovern, released Chisholm's Louisiana delegates at the national convention so they could cast their votes for her during the floor vote.

The first female US presidential candidate ran 100 years prior to Chisholm; that was Victoria Claflin Woodhull. She and her sister, Tennessee Claflin, were well-known feminists and suffragists.

And of course, currently there's Jill Stein.

Edited to add Margaret Chase Smith, Senator from Maine, who ran against Goldwater in 1964. I clearly remember her candidacy; she was on the news a lot back then.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

ThoughtfulVoter's picture

Wasn't there a former beauty pageant queen that ran in the 80s from some southern State?

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So they could cast their votes for her."

A gesture that Hillary would never make in a million years.

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Centaurea's picture

It may have been Hubert Humphrey who released the Chisholm delegates, once it became clear he would lose to McGovern.

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"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi

"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone

elenacarlena's picture

Perhaps has the most votes? Not necessarily percentagewise, but maybe absolute numbers-wise. Assuming, of course, that her votes were real, not hacked.

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

riverlover's picture

She looks like she was dragged out of bed. As several have said. Not Presidential material.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Alex Ocana's picture

A thorough search of the Internet, has proven that all images showing H. Clinton's penis have been censored by Google.

But there is this:, "Dec 9, 2015. Crazed Russian threatens to cut off Hillary Clinton's penis"

Then there was this from youtube, "This Video proves Hillary Clinton suffering from penis cancer." I am grateful no images. I am grateful they removed it.

And finally, there was one picture, taken from behind, showing her using a urinal in the men's room. Headlined, "Hillary Has Her Penis Removed to Emphasize Her Femininity." The original article has also been removed along with the image in the dumpster behind the hospital which was worse than disgusting. The urinal shot remains.

Be sure to take your anti-nausea meds if you click the video.

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From the Light House.

Alligator Ed's picture

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