Everyone makes mistakes. Some people forget to take their shoes off and enter a house. Some people speak without thinking. Some people get into an accident because because don't look over the blind spot. And some people accidentally get a Nazi tattoo on their chest for 20 years.
As someone who works in health care, I am so pleased you drilled down on this. Benign is no longer the medical term for this condition, the face value of this is easily found with a google search. Thank you for diving deeper and calling out the gerontocracy.
Both my husband's hands sort of bloomed with a very visibile essential tremor in recent years. We think it might have been a reaction to Covid shots in both arms, due to an undetected underlying condition, although he continues to get the vaccine. It doesn't stop him from working (he's a writer) but I can see where it would be a significant employment liability for people who have public-facing jobs where the tremor would make *other* people uncomfortable. And obviously doing precision work, like dentistry, is out of the question. As for links to dementia or other progressive conditions, it's kind of hard to say because -- like Collins -- he's also well over 70, when other "deficits" start appearing even minus the tremor. But he's less forgetful than I am (who is younger), still fluid in his speech, and doesn't plan to retire. All that said, he thinks Collins is too old to run for another term! Shame on The Times for characterizing reporting on her hiding her frailties as "pushed by the left". The right doesn't tell the truth to begin with, and how could Chuck Schumer dare bring up a "colleague's" age?
Ken, you say it all. I support Graham Platner. He is a Progressive, like me, has been honest about his medical conditions. Susan Collins cannot be trusted. Read the AI post below:
"Senator Susan Collins played a critical role in the 2018 confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, providing a key "yes" vote after announcing her support in a pivotal Senate speech. Collins stated she believed Kavanaugh would respect precedent, specifically regarding Roe v. Wade, but later expressed that she felt "misled" after he voted to overturn it in 2022."
Misled? How about lied to. Both Collins and Kavanaugh need to go. Collins is the easier one. Platner would most assuredly be a "yes" vote for SCOTUS reform.
I've known I had "benign essential tremor" since I was diagnosed with it when I was 15. This is the first I've heard "benign" was eliminated since it's not that serious. In my 50's now, I work out hard core early every morning and never think about it until my hand shakes when I grab a coffee afterward but I am healthier now than when I was 30. I also used to see Collins when she was on the THUD Appropriations subcommittee and I was lobbying on rail transportation. She's had that tremor for a long time and you could also see it via CSPAN when she was speaking on the senate floor 20+ years ago. Her tremor is not a big deal though her length in office is a big deal. Congressional term limits should have been put in place a long time ago.
Another standout – which is to say, characteristic – piece from Ken Klippenstein. I’m in a neighboring state, hence don’t get to see much of Susan Collins – lucky on that score – except every now and then on the national news, or what the networks think passes as news. For many years now I’ve been asking, how does she get away with it? Still don’t know, I thought Mainerds had a fundamental sense about them about what passes muster, what doesn’t, you know, what fresh fish smells like (it doesn’t) and bait (which does).
Now this revelation about her tremor. I at first gave some thought that maybe her conscience was catching up with her, an inevitable physiologic toll for all the triangulating, tiptoeing, tightrope walking, and coyness, flip-flopping, and just plain duplicity she’s engaged in her years – dare it be called “career”? – in the Senate. Among a slew of her democracy- and rationality-affirming votes has to be for that uber-qualified guardian of the public health and exponent of healthy living RFK, Jr., we are all grateful for her principled stance on that one, along with another Republican who puts the welfare of the public above partisanship, physician Bill Cassidy, (R-LA). “You’re in good hands with All State.”
Glad you picked up on that smug, dismissive “pushed in particular on the left” line, it needs to be reiterated every now and then that indeed “Reality has a well-known liberal bias” (thank you, Stephen Colbert).
All that being said, I do have a quibble, a plaint. What does the term “a combat veteran” mean, what place does it have in describing a candidate like Graham Platner, or anyone else for that matter? The first thing that comes to my mind is here’s some lucky s.o.b. who somehow managed to survive, more or less intact, yet another of this country’s many wars – that should be corrected to “illegal attacks” or “military adventures” – on relatively defenseless other countries. Why should that be of note, except to underscore not only the thuggery of this country abroad, but also the insanity of what it does domestically, like cut Medicaid benefits to millions in order to fund – but only partially – the obscene $1+ trillion per year Pentagon (bloated) budget?
I’m trembling over the implications of that nonsense.
I have found this town hall meeting Graham Platner held about a month ago helpful. I do not live in Maine. But the senate race there is incredibly important. Platner speaks to his military service and what impacts and injuries he experienced, and how he has made his way through it with support from the Veteran's Administration.
Important point, thanks. It also needs to be kept in mind the Republicans have been intent on privatizing the VA, nothing drives them to distraction more than a successful government program that delivers better, at less cost, than the private sector. I was speaking about this last fall at a conference with former VA Secretary David Shulkin, who after being recruited, almost kidnapped, by Trump to help salvage the political nightmare the VA had become after Dumbya's excellent adventure in Iraq left the grossly underfunded (because of the Republicans) to treat thousands of returning service members.
Shulkin, an experienced and highly capable health systems administrator, did a fantastic job, embarrassing private sector health care over what could be done if patients were put ahead of profits. Obviously this could not stand, and he had to go, done in characteristic "stab in the back" fashion.
As journalist Bill Moyers would often say at the end of one of his investigative pieces, "I'm not making this up."
Great article, and Ken seems to be one of very few highlighting the obvious, that those responsible for our future and seeking more power, are old or sick. Keep on them Ken!
Great job, Ken. It is infuriating how much the MSM fawns on the powerful, instead of holding them accountable.
I hadn't heard of ET before, but now I am more educated on the matter. And you are right, downplaying it is very insulting to everyone who suffers from it. It does sound debilitating. I have a migraine disorder, and I always get angry when people talk about migraines as "just a headache." No, migraines shut down your entire body.
Well…
Given what you know of SC’s craven opportunism and the soul shaped void at the core of her being…
You likely shake like hell if you woke up and faced Susan Collins in the mirror each morning.
Everyone makes mistakes. Some people forget to take their shoes off and enter a house. Some people speak without thinking. Some people get into an accident because because don't look over the blind spot. And some people accidentally get a Nazi tattoo on their chest for 20 years.
This is about why I still think Collins is the right choice in the race.
Obviously, she's a terrible candidate. But the Dems picked the wrong candidate togo against her.
Excellent reporting either way, Ken.
As someone who works in health care, I am so pleased you drilled down on this. Benign is no longer the medical term for this condition, the face value of this is easily found with a google search. Thank you for diving deeper and calling out the gerontocracy.
I couldn't believe how blatantly they lied about it
Well done Ken. Speaking truth to power is crucial And I do not consider you to be right or left. You call it as you see it.
you made my day!
Agreed. Kens reporting on the natsec state has been picked up and echoed constant by rightwing civil libertarians.
"And I do not consider you to be right or left"
You write this as if it's a good thing.
I think it is.
OK, why?
Both my husband's hands sort of bloomed with a very visibile essential tremor in recent years. We think it might have been a reaction to Covid shots in both arms, due to an undetected underlying condition, although he continues to get the vaccine. It doesn't stop him from working (he's a writer) but I can see where it would be a significant employment liability for people who have public-facing jobs where the tremor would make *other* people uncomfortable. And obviously doing precision work, like dentistry, is out of the question. As for links to dementia or other progressive conditions, it's kind of hard to say because -- like Collins -- he's also well over 70, when other "deficits" start appearing even minus the tremor. But he's less forgetful than I am (who is younger), still fluid in his speech, and doesn't plan to retire. All that said, he thinks Collins is too old to run for another term! Shame on The Times for characterizing reporting on her hiding her frailties as "pushed by the left". The right doesn't tell the truth to begin with, and how could Chuck Schumer dare bring up a "colleague's" age?
Ken, you say it all. I support Graham Platner. He is a Progressive, like me, has been honest about his medical conditions. Susan Collins cannot be trusted. Read the AI post below:
"Senator Susan Collins played a critical role in the 2018 confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, providing a key "yes" vote after announcing her support in a pivotal Senate speech. Collins stated she believed Kavanaugh would respect precedent, specifically regarding Roe v. Wade, but later expressed that she felt "misled" after he voted to overturn it in 2022."
Misled? How about lied to. Both Collins and Kavanaugh need to go. Collins is the easier one. Platner would most assuredly be a "yes" vote for SCOTUS reform.
Graham Platner's campaign website: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/platner_ads_gsearch?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22916319059&gbraid=0AAAABBKHmKNWp0FQLKl-HPLjcZ_aIzO3A&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_IXQBhCkARIsADqELbIrvfrHEYeO9Q3qRPEeN0Alx1C024AGLLEw_S9hcnhCl2gJ4ERoyV4aAvN8EALw_wcB
Her pearl clutching could be a symptom of her mental degeneration...cannot fully reason or make a decision.
I've known I had "benign essential tremor" since I was diagnosed with it when I was 15. This is the first I've heard "benign" was eliminated since it's not that serious. In my 50's now, I work out hard core early every morning and never think about it until my hand shakes when I grab a coffee afterward but I am healthier now than when I was 30. I also used to see Collins when she was on the THUD Appropriations subcommittee and I was lobbying on rail transportation. She's had that tremor for a long time and you could also see it via CSPAN when she was speaking on the senate floor 20+ years ago. Her tremor is not a big deal though her length in office is a big deal. Congressional term limits should have been put in place a long time ago.
Yes, Collins age (73) puts her at risk for a lot of things
Just because your tremor is not a big deal for you, it doesn't mean it isn't a big deal for her. Just sayin'.
Another standout – which is to say, characteristic – piece from Ken Klippenstein. I’m in a neighboring state, hence don’t get to see much of Susan Collins – lucky on that score – except every now and then on the national news, or what the networks think passes as news. For many years now I’ve been asking, how does she get away with it? Still don’t know, I thought Mainerds had a fundamental sense about them about what passes muster, what doesn’t, you know, what fresh fish smells like (it doesn’t) and bait (which does).
Now this revelation about her tremor. I at first gave some thought that maybe her conscience was catching up with her, an inevitable physiologic toll for all the triangulating, tiptoeing, tightrope walking, and coyness, flip-flopping, and just plain duplicity she’s engaged in her years – dare it be called “career”? – in the Senate. Among a slew of her democracy- and rationality-affirming votes has to be for that uber-qualified guardian of the public health and exponent of healthy living RFK, Jr., we are all grateful for her principled stance on that one, along with another Republican who puts the welfare of the public above partisanship, physician Bill Cassidy, (R-LA). “You’re in good hands with All State.”
Glad you picked up on that smug, dismissive “pushed in particular on the left” line, it needs to be reiterated every now and then that indeed “Reality has a well-known liberal bias” (thank you, Stephen Colbert).
All that being said, I do have a quibble, a plaint. What does the term “a combat veteran” mean, what place does it have in describing a candidate like Graham Platner, or anyone else for that matter? The first thing that comes to my mind is here’s some lucky s.o.b. who somehow managed to survive, more or less intact, yet another of this country’s many wars – that should be corrected to “illegal attacks” or “military adventures” – on relatively defenseless other countries. Why should that be of note, except to underscore not only the thuggery of this country abroad, but also the insanity of what it does domestically, like cut Medicaid benefits to millions in order to fund – but only partially – the obscene $1+ trillion per year Pentagon (bloated) budget?
I’m trembling over the implications of that nonsense.
I have found this town hall meeting Graham Platner held about a month ago helpful. I do not live in Maine. But the senate race there is incredibly important. Platner speaks to his military service and what impacts and injuries he experienced, and how he has made his way through it with support from the Veteran's Administration.
https://youtu.be/GFxav3SPzfI?si=btI1M_xHqByuoiYU
Important point, thanks. It also needs to be kept in mind the Republicans have been intent on privatizing the VA, nothing drives them to distraction more than a successful government program that delivers better, at less cost, than the private sector. I was speaking about this last fall at a conference with former VA Secretary David Shulkin, who after being recruited, almost kidnapped, by Trump to help salvage the political nightmare the VA had become after Dumbya's excellent adventure in Iraq left the grossly underfunded (because of the Republicans) to treat thousands of returning service members.
Shulkin, an experienced and highly capable health systems administrator, did a fantastic job, embarrassing private sector health care over what could be done if patients were put ahead of profits. Obviously this could not stand, and he had to go, done in characteristic "stab in the back" fashion.
As journalist Bill Moyers would often say at the end of one of his investigative pieces, "I'm not making this up."
Great article, and Ken seems to be one of very few highlighting the obvious, that those responsible for our future and seeking more power, are old or sick. Keep on them Ken!
“It’s a big club, and WE ain’t in it.”
Always something to get your teeth into with Ken!
Finally! Someone uses the term "punk" properly . . . .
Great job, Ken. It is infuriating how much the MSM fawns on the powerful, instead of holding them accountable.
I hadn't heard of ET before, but now I am more educated on the matter. And you are right, downplaying it is very insulting to everyone who suffers from it. It does sound debilitating. I have a migraine disorder, and I always get angry when people talk about migraines as "just a headache." No, migraines shut down your entire body.
TY. Life is short. Make the moments matter. We need middle age people to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
You were there to push the egg off the wall Senator Collin’s. Can you make meaning now Senator Collin’s?