44650
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Bugger Off and Leave Kate Alone
URL: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/21/bugger-off-and-leave-kate-alone/
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March 21, 2024 Bugger Off and Leave Kate Alone by Charles Thomson The title above is a communiqué on behalf of Kensington Palace about Catherine, the Princess of Wales (commonly known as Kate). It is not actually a release by the Palace, though I feel sure it is what they would like to say, but feel restrained from doing so. CounterPunch has no such restraint of course, so I am pleased to fulfil this function on behalf of royalty. Princess of Wales and family. There are allegations that this image was digitally manipulated. On 17 January, Kensington Palace, announced she had a “planned abdominal surgery” at the London Clinic, which was stated to be non-cancerous, but no more details were revealed, except that it would be about a fortnight till she returned home and at least three months till she returned to public appearances. Updates would be provided “when there is significant new information to share.” That should have been the end of it in my humble opinion. If you had a friend in that situation and they had made it clear they wanted to recuperate in peace and didn’t want to provide further details about their operation, wouldn’t you respect that and leave them alone, until they felt well enough to reappear? If you wouldn’t, then I’m glad you’re not my friend. There is the argument that she is a public figure, but public figures also have certain rights to privacy and also to be treated decently. The January communiqué said: “The Princess of Wales appreciates the interest this statement will generate. She hopes that the public will understand her desire to maintain as much normality for her children as possible; and her wish that her personal medical information remains private.” That seems to me fairly clear and eminently reasonable. The internet is full of idiots, so the hashtag #whereiskatemiddleton has trended daily. I’m not sure why. We’ve already been told where she is – at home recovering from surgery. That is not good enough and a mixture of trolls and conspiracy nuts conjured up explanations, including that she was dead, that it was all a ruse to cover up a divorce and – my favorite – she was undergoing the final stage of transitioning from male to female. Overseas media had a field day, including Vogue and the New York Times. Spanish TV announced definitively she was in a coma. The BBC managed to be salacious under the guise of objective scrutiny with a headline: “Analysis [for which read provocative gossip]: A Royal dilemma as public curiosity over Kate’s health grows”. We expect the general public to be illiterate, but surely the BBC should be able to slake the public’s thirst by referring them to the January 17 statement. Daniela Relph, the Royal correspondent, manages to ask idiotic questions by blaming other people: “My own WhatsApp messages probably reflected what lots of people were wondering. What’s wrong with Kate? Why won’t they tell us?” Royal reporting is obviously not what it used to be. I am pleased to answer Daniela’s questions. What’s wrong with Kate is that she has had abdominal surgery. Daniela should know why they won’t tell us, because she ends her article with the explanation: “This is a princess who wants to keep things private.” If she had started with that simple fact, it would of course have rendered her whole article redundant. George Galloway and Piers Morgan with the ghost of the Princess of Wales. Definitely not digitally manipulated. Piers Morgan is the leading spokesperson for the United Kingdom, whose prestige, insight and authority tower over everyone else, including the Prime Minister, and is often the stalwart voice of commonsense and sanity in a world of interminable pronouns, but seems to falter when it comes to royals, whether those by birth or those co-opted by marriage. A few days ago, he masterfully trumped (no pun intended) up schadenfreude clickbait with the statement: “I’ve been told some stuff that, if even half of it is true, it’s pretty alarming what is happening.” He doesn’t seem to place much faith in whoever is telling him some stuff, seeing as he’s not even sure whether even half of it is true or not – I’m sure you have noticed the conditional get-out clause. A fuller and more incisive analysis would go along these lines: “I’ve been told some stuff that, if all of it is true, it’s more than pretty alarming what is happening.” “I’ve been told some stuff that, if all of it is bollocks, it’s not in the slightest pretty alarming what is happening.” He added for good measure that the Royal Family are “hiding something”. That’s right. That’s what they said from the outset, if you want to put it that way: they are hiding the intimate details of Kate’s operation. For the last few years, I have been an on-demand carer for a female friend who has various chronic female complaints, some of which would undoubtedly have been alleviated if she could have had “abdominal surgery”, which she can’t for other health reasons. It does tend to make the person feel vulnerable and sensitive about such matters. I guess you can’t win if you’re a royal. Being guarded and circumspect attracts a hoo-ha. Being a blabbermouth (no need to name names) attracts even more opprobrium. The latest storm about Kate gests more coverage than the conflict in Ukraine, which is a “war” as far as Ukraine is concerned and a “special military operation” from Russia’s point of view. Perhaps they could work towards peace with a compromise of “special military war operation”. Anyhow, moving on to the recent crucial story… It concerns a photo of Kate and the three children, all with lovely smiles, taken by Prince William and released to the press. Everyone was happy, until it was noticed that some bad digital manipulation had been done. Kate issued a statement saying she was the guilty party as a tinkering amateur photographer. There was no explanation as to why she did this, nor any issue of the original pre-manipulated version.. The news agencies promptly withdrew the photo, as it didn’t meet their rules for photo journalism. That seems a bit remiss. Surely they should have retained it, as it’s become a news item, and just re-captioned it as the controversial, digitally-manipulated image. You don’t have to rely on anonymous internet users for idiocy. We have (certain) MPs for that and one of them is George Galloway, recently elected by a shock result in a by-election in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. On 14 March he X’d (is that the right term for what was formerly “tweeted”?): “Princess Kate has been missing for almost 80 days. There’ve been three faked photos and millions of rumors. What are the royals covering up? Is she dead or has she downed tools?” I think I’ve already covered why she’s not “missing” and she can hardly be held responsible for “millions of rumors”, though Galloway can for some of them. He has surpassed Piers Morgan in hot air. It must be very disappointing for him, when she was photographed three days later in a farm shop in Windsor. But have no fear: the internet is now speculating that the photo is a body double or even AI-generated, and, as I write this, I see that Piers Morgan has referenced such mad notions. Possibly a photo taken yesterday, or else on 5 May 2023 with First Lady of the United States, Dr Jill Biden, and First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, at Buckingham Palace. No doubt all of this will all be out of date by the time you read it and there will be videos of the Princess of Wales, skiing, hang-gliding and scaling the outside of One World Trade Center, along with rumours that she has been kidnapped by Osama bin Laden. The Princess of Wales has, as far as I can see, done a fine and dedicated job as one of the royals in the public arena, but doesn’t want to invite the public into her abdomen. I understand this as my parents were the same. I only found out, after my mother died and I inherited her diary, that twenty years earlier she had had abdominal surgery. Fortunately, she wasn’t a leading member of the royal family (she just acted like it on occasion), nor was she undergoing a sex change. NOTES How the family photo was digitally manipulated. |
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44668
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Fox News host doubts cancer unless patient loses hair...
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...(but first offers the disclaimer:) "Maybe I'm showing my ignorance"... *** Yeah, there's no maybe there, pal, they're both sporting some massive ignorance in this absurd conversation...lol.. This, ladies and gentleman, is the mentality we're dealing with. Who knows if hers is feigned or not, it can be hard to tell with GOPers...and not sure who this M.D. is, either, but to speculate between chemotherapies used to treat gastrointestinal and gynecological cancers in the simplistic way he is, is ludicrous. There are many, many types of chemotherapy drugs beyond Taxol used to treat both types of cancer... Some cause hair loss, and some do not. The context of this comparison is pure bullshit, but I can't say I'm surprised how many will swallow whatever appears to serve their cause, regardless of its relationship to actual truth.............it's the GOP way... This one's for your, blindhog... *** Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy expressed doubt about Kate Middleton's cancer because she still has "luscious" hair. "You know, one thing, just as a layperson," Campos-Duffy told Dr. Mark Siegel on Sunday. "I'm not a doctor like you, Dr. Siegel, but, you know, she said that she's undergoing some preventative chemotherapy." "I'm gonna, maybe I'm showing my ignorance, but I saw her luscious, you know, full hair, and I thought, well, that's not what I think about when I think about chemotherapy," she insisted. "So there's two points there," Siegel replied. "First is people should know that preventive chemotherapy is often done when you get it all out." "Now, you mentioned her hair," the doctor said. "There's two different types of chemo." ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why half of America does not care about Trump's crimes "If she had a GYN cancer, she'd probably be on Taxol, which causes you to lose your hair," Siegel added. "That doesn't cause you to lose your hair. So that's where a lot of the debate is coming." "It seems that it looks like she has her hair. So that would be implying more, again, a GI type of cancer. Taxol does cause you to lose your hair. Then you would be wearing a wig." Siegel pointed out that it was "something that it's up to her to disclose." Watch the video below from Fox News or at the link. |
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44669
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: And this example here
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is what the conspiracy theory types latch onto - without having full understanding of a subject matter. They just take what Fox or someone else feeds them and then run with it. I never lost my hair through my treatments; my neighbor, who passed away over a year ago from pancreatic cancer, she went through chemo and radiation, and also never lost her hair. Not every treatment = hair loss. AND if in fact, the royal DID lose her hair, they have more money than who knows and could certainly afford the world's most expensive wigs that look incredibly realistic. So, the sheer ignorance of some who blindly and yes, stupidly, entrench themselves in conspiracy theories is beyond mind boggling |
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44655
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Kate Middleton reveals cancer diagnosis in moving statement
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The Princess of Wales said she needed time to come to terms with her news and tell her children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, before informing the world *** Maybe now the vultures will back off...? Nah... *** The Princess of Wales has been diagnosed with cancer and personally revealed her diagnosis to the world. In a deeply moving video statement, Kate Middleton disclosed that the cancer was discovered while she underwent major abdominal surgery at the London Clinic at the start of the year. The 42-year-old princess said she needed to recover from surgery before she could start “preventative chemotherapy”, after being advised by her medical team. The news comes as a huge shock to the royal family with King Charles and the future queen now both fighting cancer at the same time. Speculation has swirled for weeks about Kate’s medical condition, with ceaseless rumours and wild conspiracy theories online. Wearing a blue and white striped jumper with blue trousers and sitting on a garden bench, Kate said she had needed time to come to terms with the news and tell her children Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5, before informing the world. She said: “It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful. Kate recorded a deeply moving statement revealing her Kate recorded a deeply moving statement revealing her cancer diagnosis (BBC Studios) “In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thoughtthat my condition was non-cancerous. “The surgery was successful. However, tests after theoperation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment.” Praising her husband as “a great source of comfort and reassurance”, Kate added: “This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.” “As you can imagine, this has taken time. It has taken me time to recover from major surgery in order to start my treatment. “But, most importantly, it has taken us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that is appropriate for them, and to reassure them that I am going to be ok.” (AP) The video was filmed at Windsor on Wednesday, according to Kensington Palace. It is understood the video was released on the day William and Kate’s three children began their Easter school holidays to take advantage of the break to shield them from coverage of their mother’s health. Kate was last seen at an official royal engagement at Christmas, when she attended church with the rest of the family at Sandringham. She was admitted into hospital for two weeks in January and was expected to recuperate for several months, not returning to official duties until after Easter. The princess did not reveal her medical condition, in contrast to the king who was open about his cancer diagnosis after going in for prostate treatment. Her disappearance from public prompted wild rumours about her health, which were only compounded when she released a family picture to mark Mother’s Day, surrounded by her three children. The image was pulled by six pictures agencies after it transpired the image had been digitally altered. Kate personally apologised, saying she had done a little light editing, say but the original photograph was never released. She and William were then spotted at a farm shop in Windsor, which prompted outlandish speculation that she had bee replaced by a body double. The rumour and conjecture will now be silenced by the shocking news from Kensington Palace and the princess has asked for privacy to let the fmaily cope with her condition. “We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment. My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy and I look forward to being back when I am able, but for now I must focus on making a full recovery.” Paying tribute to all those who are also suffering, she finshed by saying: “At this time, I am also thinking of all those whose lives have been affected by cancer. For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone.” It is not known how long Kate will be receiving treatment but it is understood she may be keen to attend events as and when she feels able to, in line with medical advice, although this will not indicate a return to full-time duties. |
44665
From: blindhog 6th sense, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Vultures? The Only Vultures Were Those Not Concerned Enough...
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...about her that they bought the sh*t the Palace was feeding them! People who care about and have affection for someone they like and admire, will be pestering authorities or anyone who might have a shred of evidence about the well-being and health of that person, especially since that person's own husband ONLY ONCE visited the hospital they were "supposedly" in, and who supposedly never even got a visit from her parents! So it seems those who really don't like Kate and those who want to see her dead ARE the real vultures, no different than the vultures in the wild, waiting to pick the bones of the a victim who died for some UNKNOWN reason. And based on all the lies coming from the Palace, someone who cares even wonders about this grainy/gauzy video of "Kate" sitting in front of flowered bushes that don't sway one iota in the breeze. |
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44658
From: chaskuchar@stcharlesmo, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Kate Middleton reveals cancer diagnosis in moving statement
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i suspect endocrine cancer. my wife had that for three years before she died. so sad. |
44659
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Kate Middleton reveals cancer diagnosis in moving statement
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Since she had abdominal surgery, more like uterine, cervical, ovarian? |
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44661
From: chaskuchar@stcharlesmo, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Kate Middleton reveals cancer diagnosis in moving statement
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i meant uterine cancer which my wife had. she was bleeding all the time. |
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44651
From: blindhog 6th sense, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Is Kate Alive/CTs: Lionel Nation YouTube 250+ K Subscribers (NT)
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44657
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: So, then, bh6
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all your flapping posting about conspiracy theories about the 'missing' Kate, oh, look, there is a valid and logical explanation as to why...and had NOTHING to do with the conspiracies that you consume and inhale on a hourly basis. Perfectly understandable when someone is diagnosed with cancer that they want to take some time to not only process the information but figure out the next steps forward but also try to envision their future. It takes time, and certainly Kate is allowed such instead of being bombarded with crap that comes from those spewing baseless conspiracy theories. Something, obviously you have no clue about. |
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44652
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Hey blindhog...
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You know...there's righteous rebellion, and there's acting like a child. The two are very different. The energies of genuinely righteous rebellion source from humanity's deep love and respect for *freedom for all*... Refusing to allow legislation to be passed that disallows that equality & discriminates with impunity according to a fascist agenda. Acting like a child is refusing to acknowledge this calling to the universal truth of all humans being equal to one another, and adding one's energies to those fascist idealogies whose aim it is to destroy those most-American of all values... (Pretty much tantamount to throwing in with the biggest bully trying to ensure you'll end up with The Winner...) Guess which one refusing to post according to the owner's requests is? Hey, by all means, you do you...but, seriously? lol |
44653
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Whoa, lookit that...! I didn't post this twice...
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...only once, beneath bh's yet-again-Kate conspiracy post... Wonder how that happened...? |
44664
From: mr bopp, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Whoa, lookit that...! I didn't post this twice...
| sometimes when i delete stuff the thread numbering gets screwed up...i cannot predict when...just a glitch in this old forum software...sorry... |
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44667
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Whoa, lookit that...! I didn't post this twice...
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No worries, Ryan! Just took me aback for a moment is all... ;) |
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44654
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Whoa, lookit that...! I didn't post this twice...
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It's happened to me more than once. Appears to be a timing glitch, putting posts in odd places where they don't belong. Unfortunately once it happened to hurt the feelings of someone not intended, and I didn't know it had occurred for hours( next day? )because I was off the board. Yes, there is a moral to this story. |
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44656
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Whoa, lookit that...! I didn't post this twice...
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Thanks Mitra... ;D Yes, I think I remember this happening a couple times before too... |
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