The Wall Street Journal reports, without raising my level of enlightenment. Wasn’t necessarily true?! At least Conley's forthright about not being forthright, but how can I believe anything he says? Conley talks about Trump the way Trump talks about the virus. He wants to keep it "upbeat."
It's the old "Power of Positive Thinking" — the Norman Vincent Peale self-help that Trump has long embraced:
Psychologist Martin Seligman, former APA president and founder of positive psychology... writes that, “positive thinking often involves trying to believe upbeat statements such as 'Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better,' in the absence of evidence, or even in the face of contrary evidence.”... Similarly, Donald Meyer, in his book The Positive Thinkers, critiques the effectiveness of Peale's techniques saying that Peale always “reacted to the image of harshness with flight rather than competitive fight.” Meyer later quotes Peale as saying, “No man, however resourceful or pugnacious, is a match for so great an adversary as a hostile world. He is at best a puny and impotent creature quite at the mercy of the cosmic and social forces in the midst of which he dwells." Meyer argues that positive thinking is disempowering to the individual; for, Peale presents individuals as weak compared to the “hostile world” with only the help of his techniques to overcome negative circumstances....
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54 comments:
Choosing your attitude is not the same thing as denying facts, although the critics of positive thinking as a strategy often think so.
The power of something is revealed by it's opposite.
Democrats believe in the power of negative thinking.
One of my favorites from my favorite Golden Age songwriter. I like his own version best but hers was also great fun.
Two visions for America:
1. Booming economy, Reopening and freedom, law and order, rising wages, lower taxes.
2. Extended indefinite shut downs, free trade with China, gutted manufacturing, open borders, higher taxes, BLM/Antifa rioters everywhere.
Positive vs. Negative.
Doctors learned a thousand years ago to not be optimistic but this situation is unique. 40% of the country is hoping Trump will die, including a number of commenters here, and he doesn't want to feed that frenzy.
Whatevr happened to HIPPA privacy? Does that only apply to people with AIDS and where Obama was on the night of the Benghazi attack?
Good. The hydroxychloroquine zinc zpac miracle cure to the rescue.
On to the debates.
The power of positive thinking might explain all the Biden campaign lids around 9 am.
Perhaps the United States and its citizens would be better off with the death of Donald Trump this week and a lot more public displays of homosexuality. Do the Democrats offer mandatory homosexual studies for elementary school children in all states, or just the ones they control?
Peale doesn't present individuals as weak compared to the “hostile world” with only the help of his techniques to overcome negative circumstances. Peale presents individuals as weak with only the help of God to overcome negative circumstances.
In the movie "Dave" with Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver the White House has a hospital like setup in the basement. I wonder why there isn't something like that in reality. I can see why the doctors want to go to the hospital because of the extensive resources there but it is also where there are other sick people.
There are lots of privacy rules when it comes to medical information about someone so I am assuming the doctor was taking whatever line Trump authorized to be taken. I think it only matters if he is alive or dead. And in the movie Dave that didn't matter so much. Does Trump have a doppelganger? And no I don't think Alex Baldwin qualifies.
The president's improving health is inversely proportional to liberals happiness. I am reading a lot of angry and pissed off liberals at the moment on FB and Twitter. By Monday afternoon they will be openly and proudly calling it a "hoax" and feel 100% justified in their black, shriveled hearts.
The propaganda is coming from all sides.
The media is claiming that methadexasone —a glucocorticoid— is only recommended for patients in more severe situations.
There was a contraindication at first for some steriods but then the British did this study which I think a lot of the press are using as a point of reference.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2021436
The study was written up in late July. SARS-CoV-2 is a novel, new virus and there is a learning curve for dealing with it.
They are missing this paragraph in the middle of the RECOVERY report on glucocorticoid use:
OTHER PRESPECIFIED CLINICAL OUTCOMES
The risk of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation was lower in the dexamethasone group than in the usual care group (risk ratio, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.95) (Table 2). Analyses are ongoing regarding cause-specific mortality, the need for renal dialysis or hemofiltration, and the duration of ventilation.
As someone who has oxygen level issues, 94% unless chronic is the equivalent of bending over to tie your shoes. It is absolutely nothing. Pulmonologists get concerned at below 90% and when it stays low. 98% is absolutely perfect.
This was an extremely over cautious approach and of course the democrat propaganda outlets are too lazy to add context to the situation.
Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Mercer himself.
“No man, however resourceful or pugnacious, is a match for so great an adversary as a hostile world. He is at best a puny and impotent creature quite at the mercy of the cosmic and social forces in the midst of which he dwells."
That could be a direct quote from Sartre.
Rory no fair going with 2 greatest singers of everything else too.
Your glass will always be half full, if you wish it to be.
As someone else pointed out on Twitter, the media has pressed the Walter Reed doctor with harder questioning than Joe Biden has ever faced.
Not necessarily true...Trump speak....didnt want to hurt anyone's feelings gs so we LIED..are all trump doctors liars?
The propaganda is coming from all sides.
Don’t mess with Mr Inbetween.
Which thoughts are poisonous? Thoughts that become repeated. Thoughts that become ingrained into neural patterns. Thoughts that react with an illusion.
All cultures have a meme about a person who walks around with a dark rainy cloud over their head all day. No one wants to be around them. Social media could be described as a dark, rainy, social cloud with a few rainbows here and there.
Continued departure into poisonous thinking without balance leads to mental imbalance that gets stronger over time as the pattern becomes habit.
That's why its healthy to listen to two opposite bloggers, two opposite podcasts, find one painting you like, find one poem you like, find one song you like.
Umm. This business about oxygen levels requires some background. I had mild Covid -- no better or worse than Trump's so far -- March. The oximeter test, like, say, a blood pressure monitor, is very useful but not precise. More important, the idea that a brief 92 or 93 percent O2 reading is truly dangerous is not, I think true. I had occasional readings at that level anomy physician never thought of hospitalizing me, given how I felt otherwise. Even more to the point, I had "severe" sleep apnea for a number of years (before getting a CPAP machine). When I had a sleep test, my nighttime 02 reads dipped in the 80's. These readings are matters of concern -- but not necessarily signifiers of imminent harm, or signifiers of severity.
My guess is that because Trump is President, they took NO CHANCES, gave him a bit of oxygen at the WH, and took him over to
Walter Reed. You may recall Boris Johnson spent a night in hospital on supplemental oxygen -- he's fine now.
Don't get too excited about yet one more data point physicians use but that doesn't mean things are dire.
But, of course, we won't know till we know. Mild cases usually resolve in 6 or 7 days.
He would need more days in ISOLATION and two negative Covid tests to return to my workplace, but it's only the White House.
2020 has been the year of negativity with Covid bullshit being the star attraction. Any optimism or hope was squelched and dismissed on contact, and pessimism repeated 24/7, even if it was disproved. Kind of like most news concerning Trump always is.
I had a heart incident 4 years ago and was put into the hospital. I was pretty scared. By the time I woke up the next day (around 4 am, as anyone who's been hospitalized will understand), I was confident that I would survive and was in a hurry to go home. That's what I call positive thinking. Sounds that Trump has that. It worked for me, I hope it will work for him.
remember that one time?
back when Hilary! was (or, was about to be) our President?
and they had to throw her like a sack of potatoes in the van?
and they said that "NOTHING" was wrong?
remember? i didn't think you did
I love this a capella version by Monica Mancini. Except for the vocal bass, she sings all of the other parts.
- Krumhorn
Planned President? Sheath the scalpels. Trump's still viable.
Lockdowns are terrible policy.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3702595
They are costly and provide little to no benefit in stopping the spread of virus.
What else are the so-called experts saying now that will be wrong tomorrow?
Karen B will explain it all.
Or tim in vermont.
Any minute now.
I think we all need Mary Martin to swing by on the silver wire and land next to the table center stage whereon sits the container with Tinker Bell; Mary would then tell us to BELIEVE, BELIEVE, so our beloved Tinker Bell will revive.
We need to BELIEVE so OUR Donald will revive and return.
He will, of course.
Dems are trapped; when he is discharged after less than a week, the dread virus begins to look less serious at this point.
If you think the details are important, you're anti science.
Science is a process.
A drop in O2 is important at the moment. It is a data point. It becomes less important as data points accumulate. The Presidents O2 level Friday morning means nothing to any Doctor, on Sunday at noon. Again, that data point is meaningless. Especially when the new data is within expectations for the situation. There are probably a handful of different reasons the O2 dipped, one is faulty sensors, spending time attempting to figure it out is a waste of energy, nothing can be learned, Expectations are fluid and complicated. Medicine is more about art, intuition, gaming, and gut feeling, and less about science. Doctors spend a lot of time setting expectations.
The only person that the Doctor gives a shit about communicating with is the patient. Even when the patient is the President, give the public the same info as the patient serves no purpose.
"At least Conley's forthright about not being forthright, but how can I believe anything he says?"
Why would you think he even knows you exist, let alone caring whether you believe him? And why should he be forthright when addressing a pack of jackals in the press who would never believe or report anything that even hints at complete recovery?
Making too much of no useful information.
Wait.
Oh, sorry, its not possible to wait anymore.
Let me be candid... What, you weren't being candid all those other times?
Might just be a verbal tic, similar to "you know" and "ummm".
@Chennaul: apparently all the reporters have now graduated from being class A Epidemiologists to experts at Internal Medicine and medications.
Unknown said...
As someone who has oxygen level issues, 94% unless chronic is the equivalent of bending over to tie your shoes. It is absolutely nothing. Pulmonologists get concerned at below 90% and when it stays low. 98% is absolutely perfect.
This was an extremely over cautious approach and of course the democrat propaganda outlets are too lazy to add context to the situation."
Spot on.
What is it with the Left and those afflicted with TDS? They want him dead and then criticize him for not taking precautions so he wouldn't die. Maybe he is Schrodinger's Trump. Both dead and alive depending on the observer.
Given the democraticals and LLR-lefties reactions over the past several days, I fully expect Pelosi and crew to bring new impeachment charges against DJT for the crime of not dying.
Trump is on his way back to the White House by motorcade. Agents in the Suburban with him appear to be gowned, masked, and wearing eye protection. Strategically, I think that it would have been better to have spent a couple more days at Walter Reed. Might have made him appear a bit more heroic. Not to be. But hope he runs a reduced schedule the next couple days.
How ridiculous. But then why would you trust the WSJ to report accurately on trump's illness. Per the Doctor, his saturation never has dropped below 90, and he was only on Oxygen Friday for a brief time as a precaution.
So, why believe anything he says. I dunno, maybe because Trump looks great, and is going to be released on Monday, and everything appears fine. There was no need to talk about supplemental oxygen on Saturday, because the Press would've gone crazy. Now they CANNOT go crazy, they can only bitch about the Doctor not telling him the whole truth.
I watched both Press Conferences, and the goofball reporters don't deserve to be told the details. Their sole desire is to make Trump look bad, talk about him wearing a mask, or trying to get confidential personal information so they can 2nd guess the Doctor. but then they showed the same bias, stupidity, and obsession with trivia during ALL the CV-19 briefings. So, its not surprising. I just skip their reports and watch the Dr. Video's.
I remember being skeptical when Hillary Nosedived on 9/11 and they threw her in the van like a sack of potatoes. Then they staged a very odd thing with either Hillary or a doppelgänger and a little girl. The press assured us that everything was fine and nothing to see here.
I don’t think this is at all like that.
Donald Trump is the most hated president since Lincoln. And beloved. Think about it
I'm free and I'm happy
I am free from your hatred
I've parted from the part
That I participated in
So I'm free it was easy
I know nothing of your hatred
I've known and shone the light
And the darkness abated
So I'm free
The power of positive thinking is powerful. Lies are also powerful, of course.
"Whatevr happened to HIPPA privacy? Does that only apply to people with AIDS and where Obama was on the night of the Benghazi attack?"
In the arms of Reggie Love is my recollection. Whatever happened to Reggie?
The media throws all sorts of misinformation out there - "Trump's really sick!" "Trump's having trouble breathing!" "Trump's taking drugs that are only for very ill patients!"
Then when his doctors or the WH come out with a statement, they can then say "Hmmmm, I don't the administration is being straight with us."
People are losing it over this. They have gone insane.
People are grousing about the SS agents. Hello? They have masks on. Trump has a mask on. And SS agents were with him when he WENT to the hospital. They are with him IN THE HOSPITAL. These guys are willing to take a bullet, do you think they care about a .0001% chance of CV-19!
Only Trump would thank his supporters in a drive-by and then go home to the White House. He's not out of the woods yet though. The real test comes 7-10 days into the illness, when people either get well, or for a small minority get very sick.
You can see why the Press is confused. Other than a team of Doctors saying he's doing fine, two video's of him saying he's doing fine, his driving back to the WHite House, and no evidence he's seriously ill, all the evidence points to Trump being at death's door.
"remember that one time?
back when Hilary! was (or, was about to be) our President?
and they had to throw her like a sack of potatoes in the van?"
How many times do I have to correct this misinformation about Hillary!'s incident on 9/11 before you people remember it!
Once more.......she was tossed into the van like a sack of shit, not potatoes.
The LA Times is, of course, in hysterics and missed the story.
Whoops. In the time to type this, they now have a new headline. The dying one is now "nonoperative" as Ron Ziegler used to say.
Peale is appalling
...but Paul* is appealing!
(*St. Paul)
The President of The United States governed in a way that produced record improvements in minority employment and income, then general economic records before and after Covid. He brokered historic peace agreements in the middle east and Eastern Europe, and greatly improved our international agreements to the benefit of America while destroying ISIS, and isolating Iran. He did this all while under continuous assault by the Democrats, the media, and corrupt government agents, and all in his first term. He didn't suddenly die from a terrible disease, and some Americans are disappointed he didn't. Makes you wonder just how awful an American can be and still consider themselves patriotic.
@bagoh20 at 7:23 PM: That is about as fine a comment as has ever been written on the Althouse blog.
MayBee said...
"People are losing it over this. They have gone insane."
And this surprises you? Just look at the unreasoning, seething hatred of our resident usual suspects.
That’s why I firmly maintain that you are a moron Birkel, I haven’t advocated for lockdowns and in fact have advocated for masks because they work better and are far less costly to society than lockdowns. When I pointed out that Japan has had far far better success with very modest and short lived lockdowns and universal mask compliance, the response was “Japan, blah, blah, blah.”
Not to mention that studies like the one you are referencing often go in with an agenda and only look for factors that “prove” their pre-drawn conclusion, and ignore any factors that go against them, and are generally worthless. The idea that Norway had already wiped out their oldsters by poor response to a flu pandemic somehow justifies Sweden’s utter failure to protect their elderly in this would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. I don’t actually think you are a complete moron, I think you are emotionally crippled by your politics and it doesn’t allow you to see so many aspects of the subjects you claim to understand. JKLOL, you are a moron Birkel or Drago, I am not going back up thread to make sure I got that right.
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