this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2026
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They sent out the following proof of life pic:
Even IF we assume that it's genuine, the left side of his face is severely drooping and his wife seems to have to hold him up on the same side. Both indicators of paralysis of the entire left side of his body, likely due to a massive stroke.
I'm no geologist, but in my strictly non-electrician estimation, it's extremely unlikely that a stroke that bad doesn't leave him too cognitively impaired to adequately do his job of evaluating and deciding matters of the utmost importance for 340 million people.
I'm not licensed to teach judo, though.
Isn’t it a photoshop of a vacation pic from a couple years ago?
but I'm an unregistered massage therapist.
I'm calling BS on that picture. If he's in a long term hospital stay he is going to be in a gown, he's going to have a medical bracelet, an IV, possibly oxygen and he's going to look like hot shit because no one who has been in the hospital looks good even when they are on the road to recovery. The man isn't even wearing a pulseox. If you've ever gone through it with a loved one, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So either they shoved a sick old man in jeans in a button down for a photo op (doubt) or that photo is fake as fuck. I also find the tag being on the outside of that button down shirt suspicious as fuck in an AI is stupid kind of way.
One photo? They went to all that trouble to remove the IV, etc., get showered, shave, haircut, dress him up, and pose with the wife, and they only have ONE PHOTO?
Wouldn't they take a few, in different poses, showing him looking at her, posing with his doctor and nurses (as long as he's dressed and looking good), etc.? One dumb photo?
Let's see the outtakes.
I mean, it's a proof of life photo for a Senator. It's entirely possible they dressed him up for it. These people are nothing but appearances.
The tag is normal. I have shirts with the tag like that.
I personally suspect they photo oped a (barely) living corpse. Likely with a good dose of drugs to have him cognitive enough to sit up for a few minutes before wearing off.
If it's AI, then it's a minor (but critical) modification to an existing picture. Not one created fully. It's a lot easier to cover its mistakes when it's limited in scope.
Yeah, AI generating from scratch is far more error-prone than AI doing a few tweaks.
Not to mention Photoshop (other image alteration software is available), not to mention pre-Photoshop image doctoring (see the USSR flying their flag over the Reichstag or photos of Stalin pictured with purged comrades).
I don't know, the angles on the wall behind him seem super off to me
That looks like angle and/lens distortion to me. The camera looks a little fishy eyed, so the lines can bend slightly towards the edges.
Yeah exactly. Look how he's holding the newspaper. He's not holding it up like "aha here's my proof of life!" It's more like "someone sat me up and told me to hold this but I don't know why."
My grandma had dementia so we might be able to get a picture of her looking at a camera, but we wouldn't have been able to get her to do something specific for a photo, like hold up a newspaper. Same thing going on here.
It's the eyes to me. Defocused and drifting. Combined with the drooping face, just screams stroke. If that's the best photo they could get, his brain is likely a barely functional soup. Particularly given the drugs they likely have available to turbo charge what's left.
Not that I don't agree with your general point and conclusion (I do), but the Republican propaganda ghouls would ABSOLUTELY do that.
Oh I agree, but the nursing staff in most ICUs are pretty good about shutting that kind of shit down.
A lot of those usual standards and practices go completely out the window when people this powerful show up at the hospital's door. They're not relying on the ordinary hospital security, for example. When a nurse tells them to stop, but an FBI or Secret Service agent commands them to not interfere, how many nurses would try to stand up to the feds? And even if they did, they would just be immediately escorted out of the room.
These people do not live in the same world you and I do.
Good point
If your talking about the tag at the bottom of the shirt, below the buttons, I have a shirt that has a tag like that. So sadly, that item isn't an indicator of anything hokey 🫤
It does seem odd that he is dressed and looking like he's just waiting to be given the ok for discharge, when apparently he has not been.
I could see a public figure getting a bit done up while staying in, if they expected to have a handful of visitors for photo ops and press releases, when again, apparently he has not, aside from this one odd pic.
I'm also not a geologist but I think he's ready to be put in the ground
Should have been decades ago.
When the picture was released, the added information mentioned a "light" pneumonia. That is the shit you get if you can't swallow correctly anymore, and is one of the main killers of people who suffer strokes. If he was lying around for a few hours before he found him, his brain scans will probably show severe brain damage on his right side brain. He might recover enough faculties to not die for the next years, but i see no way for him to come back and work.
Diminished use of your brain is not a barrier to leadership in MAGA. It can actually be a benefit.
As OP said we still have no proof of life. This doctored photo of two people who looks 10 years younger than they do on any recent photo of them, proves nothing at all.