Month: January 2025

Biden’s Fond Farewell

Last night Biden took a lap around the nation in an attempt to put some sort of brave face on his administration…..my opinion….he failed.

President Biden bid farewell to the nation on Wednesday evening, taking pride in US achievements while warning of threats to “the idea of America”—including attacks on democratic institutions, misinformation spread by social media, and the rise of an oligarchy that concentrates money and power in the hands of a few Americans. One of the threats, he said, should be dealt with by amending the Constitution to say no president should have immunity for crimes committed while in office, the AP reports. After 50 years in public office—and listing accomplishments, dangers, and potential solutions—Biden closed his final address as president with, “Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”

As he spoke from the Oval Office of the White House with first lady Jill Biden in the room, the president committed to a peaceful transfer of power next week, giving the example of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire announced earlier in the day. “This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration,” Biden said, per the Washington Post, adding that he told his team to keep President-elect Trump’s informed of the agreement, “because that’s how it should be.”

Acknowledging Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address that warned of the rise of a military-industrial complex, Biden said, “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex.” Some of the world’s wealthiest people, including the titans of technology, have lined up behind Trump, per the AP. Biden warned of “dangerous consequences” if the “abuse of power” by the few goes unchecked. He also called for imposing 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices.

“Farewell addresses are challenging, because they aim to put the capstone on an era at a time when most of the country has already moved on to the next one,” author Robert Schlesinger said. In leaving Wednesday night, Biden expressed “my eternal thanks to you, the American people,” as well as to his wife and family, members of his administration, service members, and Vice President Kamala Harris. He said he still believes “in the idea for which this nation stands.”

If he wanted to truly shine a light on the dangers then he should have pointed to the Lobbyists and special interests that are destroying this country.

He pointed to many things that are a danger and yet if these were known the whole time why did he and the Dems do very little to correct the problems?

Let’s not mince words here….while the nation may be safer the rest of the world is on fire thanks to Biden and Dems policies…..

Let’s look at the real legacy…..

A key measure of any U.S. president’s success is the ability or good fortune to leave his successor with a better international situation than the one he inherited.  Donald Trump inherited a relatively stable situation from Barack Obama, but his chaotic and unstable leadership did no favors for Joe Biden.  Trump now inherits a broad pattern of disorder in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific, and has named a national security team that seems destined to make all of these issues worse.

Sadly, Joe Biden is leaving the presidency with no awareness of his shortcomings.  He has charged Sudan with genocidal policies, but refuses to acknowledge his complicity with regard to Israeli genocidal policies.  Recently, Biden announced an additional $8 billion in fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery to an Israel that relies almost solely on sophisticated U.S. weaponry inappropriate for the terrain and the targets that Israel is facing.  Biden’s national security team ignored Israel’s right-wing attempts to undermine the rule of law, although the importance of the rule of law was Biden’s major campaign volley against Trump.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/14/the-dangers-of-bidens-legacy-and-trumps-inheritance/

Biden is not leaving office with the world in better shape….

As President Biden’s term approaches its end, the US and several parts of the rest of the world are significantly worse off than they were when he took office. While the president is frequently lauded by members of the foreign policy establishment as a successful foreign policy leader, his tenure has been marked for the most part by deepening US involvement in foreign conflicts that show no signs of ending anytime soon. US policies under Biden have served only to stoke destabilizing conflict, and the president has shown no inclination to bring any of the wars currently backed by Washington to an end. Biden’s presidency showed the world just how extensive the rot in US foreign policy is, and most other nations will not soon forget what restored American “leadership” wrought.

Biden ran on the promise of ending America’s forever wars, but after the withdrawal from Afghanistan he then spent most of his presidency going out of his way to involve US in conflicts where no vital American interests were at stake. The risk of great power conflict has also risen under Biden as he has pursued a China policy of containment and rivalry that the US can ill afford while US-Russian relations have sunk to new lows over Ukraine. In the Middle East, Biden has enabled Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, backed their invasion of Lebanon, and supported their attacks on Iran. He has helped Israel sow chaos across the region, and he committed the US to a new open-ended and illegal war in Yemen. The president’s extreme ideological attachment to Israel led him to pursue an indefensible policy of unconditional support that has fueled the slaughter of civilians and created one of the worst man-made famines in modern times.

https://original.antiwar.com/Daniel_Larison/2024/10/31/bidens-destructive-legacy/

Let’s be honest Biden’s legacy will be one of making nothing better and assisting in a world on fire by arming those that would do the most harm.

Do I really mean that?

As the sun sets on Joe Biden’s presidency, the Commander-in-Chief and his top staffers are using their final moments in power to convince the American people that we live in a safer and more stable world.

“The United States is winning the worldwide competition compared to four years ago,” Biden declared Monday. “America is stronger. Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker.”

The claims that America is winning and strong are as laughable as when the mainstream media repeatedly attempted to convince the American people that Biden is as “sharp as a tack.”

Americans have witnessed Joe Biden’s physical and cognitive decline over the past four years, which perfectly personifies the American empire. Rather than becoming stronger, the treasury and arms depots were exhausted for the benefit of Ukraine and Israel. America is bankrupt; economic prosperity is increasingly elusive for the average citizen and enjoyed only by an exclusive class with access to government power.

https://original.antiwar.com/kyle_anzalone/2025/01/15/joe-bidens-legacy-waging-proxy-wars-spreading-terrorism-and-killing-diplomacy/

The world is on fire and Biden throws gasoline on it…..how does that make things better?

What say you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

From The Mind Of Elmo Musty

Elmo Musty?

That is my name for that wiz kid Elon Musk.

Anyway from his so-called genius mind comes a statement that will make one question his mental process….

Do you remember his idea of sending his sperm to Mars so he can populate the new planet?

Well now he would like it if he could get pregnant…..

The sexual tension between Elon Musk’s posting disease and his obsessive transphobia is at an all-time high now that the billionaire has admitted he wishes he could get pregnant.

In a post on X-formerly-Twitter, the site owner enthusiastically agreed with a random user who joked about the multi-hyphenate and father of 12‘s ardor for reproduction.

“Can we all agree that if men giving birth was possible,” the user wrote, “Elon would be on his 17th pregnancy.”

Quote-tweeting that jape, which was itself a reply to one of his own posts that included the pregnant man emoji that right-wingers so love to dunk on, Musk responded: “1000%.”

Obviously, trans men can and do get pregnant, and that simple reality seems to make reactionaries like Musk lose their minds.

But within this exchange, paired with the context of Musk’s fertility obsession, there lies something unexamined: a seeming desire for motherhood, or at least for the experience of breeding from a vantage point the South African-born edgelord will never experience.

While the world is still quite far from achieving pregnancy in people assigned male at birth (AMAB), some scientists contend that uterus transplants could achieve this result — if only cisgender men were bold enough to dream outside of their biology.

That said, the concept of “MPREG,” the netspeak abbreviation for male pregnancy fantasies and associated fan artwork, might fulfill some of Musk’s reproductive urges — and Grok, X’s in-site AI, readily produced just that type of imagery.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-pregnant

Sorry I could not resist this story…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The “Elmer Fudd” Hearing

I am a staunch critic of the War Department and I think that the person who leads it should be overqualified because they must oversee the use of the military and deal with a budget that would choke a horse.

Trump’s choice is not qualified and I watched the hearing to see what, if anything, would be brought out…..and as I thought it was a nothing more than a sideshow….

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, was grilled by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday about issues including his views on women in combat. Some takeaways from the often testy confirmation hearing:

  • He probably has enough votes. “None of his answers seemed to disturb the Republicans who control the committee,” meaning he will likely have enough votes to move on, the New York Times reports. GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, considered a key vote, had earlier expressed concerns about the former Fox host’s nomination but she went easy on Hegseth on Tuesday. She told an Iowa radio host Tuesday evening that she will be supporting Hegseth, CNN reports.
  • A memorable exchange. The “most memorable part of the hearing,” according to the Washington Post, was a long exchange between Hegseth and Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine over Hegseth’s past, including infidelity and sexual assault allegations. “You have admitted that you had sex while you were married to wife two, after you just had fathered a child by wife three,” Kaine said, per Politico, questioning Hegseth’s judgment. Hegseth dismissed the assault allegations as “anonymous smears.”
  • Republicans defended Hegseth on character issues. Republican senators praised Hegseth’s communication skills, dismissed concerns about his lack of experience, and fired back against Kaine and other critics. “How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign?” asked GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin, per NBC News. “How many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down?”
  • Major issues were sidelined. Apart from brief mentions of China and the war in Ukraine, there was little mention of potential conflicts or other geopolitical issues. “What’s astonishing about the hearing is just how little focus there has been on the bread and butter of what the secretary of defence has to do, which is protect the nation, and ensure you have a military capable of winning conflicts,” Mara Karlin, former assistant secretary of defense, tells the BBC.

His qualifications are that he served in the military…..by that metric I should be considered as well.

This person will oversee the distribution of billions of dollars, actually real close to a trillion, and I do not think this guy is capable of thinking in those complex terms.

This is sad for the War Department but he has said that he will clean it up….but what does that actually mean?

When I think of this guy all I see is Elmer Fudd being bested by Bugs Bunny.

Any thoughts on this turkey?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

 

How Did It Come To This?

In recent years the question has been asked and there have been many answers….how did our two party system become so toxic?

I have said that I believe it became hard toxic with the election of Reagan and his policies of culture war top define politics and let the country go to crap in return.

But the truth of the matter is the party politics started way back with the 8th president, Martin Van Buren….(that is right time for a little history that few have the knowledge of in this day and time)

When Martin Van Buren arrived in Washington to be sworn in as a senator in 1821, he told a friend he planned to “build up a party” for himself. It was an odd time to be party-mongering, and Van Buren an unlikely party-monger. Republican James Monroe had run unopposed in the 1820 presidential election, and “every politician in Washington, with varying degrees of enthusiasm … was calling himself a Republican,” writes James M. Bradley in Martin Van Buren: America’s First Politician, a lively and illuminating new biography of our eighth president—the first to be born a U.S. citizen. Absent a strong opposition party, Van Buren lamented that politicians were appealing less to ideals and more to personalities, and wished, as he put it in an 1827 letter, to unite citizens through “party principle,” rather than “personal preference.”

Born in 1782 to a tavern-keeping family in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren had little schooling but made himself a lawyer, rising to the heights of power despite his lack of military experience or strong family ties to ensure patronage. At 5-foot-6, he was considered notably short, and friends and foes called him the “little magician” for his outsize political talents. He proceeded swiftly from senator to secretary of state, vice president and president. And though he failed to win a second term, Bradley says, “He built and designed the party system that defined how politics was practiced and power wielded in the United States.” We are living in the world Van Buren created.

In the first decades of the Republic, leaders had generally called themselves Federalists or Republicans, but “few imagined that parties would be a permanent feature of the nation’s political life,” Bradley writes. “They expected parties to disband once the Republic was more secure and its great issues settled.” Van Buren plowed ahead, with the thoroughly modern view that parties were not a regrettable necessity but a revolutionary means of achieving and using power. With Andrew Jackson, he co-founded the Democratic Party in 1828, cannily banking on Jackson’s personal appeal to win that year’s election; Van Buren became Jackson’s vice president, and the Democrats dominated politics until 1860. “He didn’t think that politics should be a hobby for gentlemen to practice in their spare time,” Bradley says. “A party had to have an organization, a structure, a personality, and it should be run by professionals.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/martin-van-buren-created-americas-partisan-political-system-were-still-recovering-180985643/

So you see this whole party politics is not some new concept but rather it has been building slowly and steady until we have the crappy system of today.

Just thought you might like to know

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Then There Is The Panama Chest Thumping

***Today is a return to the doctors and their meetings with me…..I do not know how long this will be so today may be a short posting day.***

Our new power broker has made several foreign policy statements and I have tried to look behind them to see just what the thing is all about……

I have done the Greenland thing and the annexing of Canada (a possibility)…and now the Panama bluster….

“When it comes to the [Panama] Canal,” the future president intoned, “we built it, we paid for it, it’s ours, and … we are going to keep it!”

No, not incoming President Donald Trump. That was Ronald Reagan, the former California governor who in 1976 challenged incumbent Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination.

After losing a string of early primaries, Reagan stumbled upon a fringe issue that came to animate his conservative base and reignited his flailing campaign. It wasn’t quite enough to put him over the edge against Ford, but it helped him defeat Jimmy Carter four years later.

With Trump now demanding that Panama cede the canal back to the United States, and threatening to use military force if the Panamanian government refuses his demand, the topic is back in the news. And it’s no less strange than it was almost 40 years ago.

As was the case then, most Americans today really don’t care. A recent YouGov poll found that 36 percent of voters support Trump’s territorial and expansionist aspirations; 36 percent oppose them; and 29 percent don’t have a point of view either way.

But much as Reagan did before him, Trump has seized on the canal as a symbol. In the 1970s, America was reeling from the Vietnam War, stagflation, oil shortages and, eventually, a hostage crisis in Iran. These overlapping crises left many people worried that the country was weak, no longer the master of its own destiny.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/11/trumps-bluster-panama-canal-00197624

The threat was the possible use of military force is a significant threat and I want to get this down before the swearing in and the news about this foreign policy threat is sidelined with all the pomp and ceremony of a coronation.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Misogyny is Facebook Approved

It appears that FB now allows women to be referred to as property.

I have never trusted Facebook or that prick Zuck and now this just shows that I was correct to distrust this prick.

Meta’s new hate speech rules — or lack thereof — now allow users to make shockingly misogynistic claims on the company’s social networks.

A perusal of the latest update to Meta’s “hateful conduct” rules reveals that a number of rules that barred users from comparing minorities to inanimate objects, including references to “women as household objects or property,” have been removed.

As part of the tech company’s transparency efforts, users are able not only to see updates to policies, but also a change log of what had been added and stricken out between updates.

For its January 7, 2025 update — which went into effect seemingly just after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday a sweeping content overhaul that was derided as a clear effort to curry favor with president-elect Donald Trump — Meta’s confusing new rules strike out a number of formerly prohibited types of speech, much of which relates to women and gender minorities.

Among the strikethroughs in the “hateful conduct” policy change log is the removal of a section barring users from comparing people to inanimate objects or “non-human states.” That rule, now rescinded, banned referring to women “as household objects or property or objects in general.”

You don’t have to a be a scholar in feminist theory to know why it’s seriously messed up to refer to a woman as someone else’s property — and that’s without getting into the history of chattel slavery in the United States, when white men owned and abused Black women for hundreds of years.

In the age of Trump 2.0, the concept of a man “owning” a woman is a logical — and terrifying — endpoint of the so-called “trad wife” movement, which seeks to reinstate traditional gender roles by will or by force. It’s also the undercurrent of the anti-choice push that the president-elect’s cronies hope to enact further once he takes office again in a few weeks.

That same regressive and misogynistic energy also seems to be on display in another peculiar removal from Meta’s new hateful conduct policy.

While the policy used to ban “generalizations that state inferiority” based on physical appearance and sexual activity — like calling people “slut,” “whore,” or “pervert,” per the old rules — the new overhaul now simply prohibits “insults” about character.

Though the new update added language saying that users should not post allegations about another person’s “sexual promiscuity or other sexual immorality,” it’s unclear what the difference between that addition and the exclusion of the “slut” and “whore” language would be, and we’ve reached out to Meta for clarification about that.

Within the context of Zuckerberg’s newfound Trump fandom, meanwhile, this policy overhaul feels very much like the “grab ’em by the pussy“-era misogyny of the president-elect’s 2016 campaign — and Meta has a lot of explaining to do if it wants the women who use its platforms to believe any different.

(futurism.com)

For the life of me I cannot see why anyone would use or continue to use this platform…..he has his subscribers by the nuts and they love it.

How sick is that?

Then I read an op-ed about time to pull the plug on FB…..I have been saying that for years…..please do it….and do it NOW!

There’s a guy named Christopher Langan who claims, because of his alleged super-high IQ, to be the smartest person in the United States. And maybe he is—I have no idea because I am decidedly not. But when Langan appeared in 2008 on the TV quiz show 1 vs 100, he fell short of the top prize widely seen as a gimme for a genius. And what struck most wasn’t just that he failed to win the million dollars on offer, but that he was forced to use the “ask the mob” option so early in his appearance, turning to them twice at the $100,000 level to answer a question about Abbott & Costello.

I was reminded of this moment while reading the news of Meta’s decision to suspend its third-party fact checking program, and to replace it with a “Community Notes” system modeled on Elon Musk’s Twitter. (I will not call it “X” because that’s a stupid name and I see no reason to honor somebody’s request not to deadname their company when they refuse to do the same for their own daughter.)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/status-update-its-time-to-pull-the-plug-on-facebook/

This final part is for all those that are interested in getting out of Facebook….

Facebook has been a staple for many people for nearly — checks notes — two decades at this point. But there are several reasons why you might finally be considering deleting your account. Whether you’re concerned about privacy, want to reduce time spent on social media, or simply no longer find Facebook useful, deleting your account is a huge step toward a digital detox — one that comes with both benefits and consequences.

Before you go through with it, let’s go over what deleting Facebook means and how to do it on different devices.

When you delete your Facebook account, it’s permanent. Most of your data — including your profile, photos, posts, and videos — will be permanently removed without the possibility of recovery. Some residual information, like messages sent to friends, will remain visible in their inboxes. You’ll also lose access to any apps or services you logged into using your Facebook account, such as Spotify or Pinterest, so you need to reset your login credentials with the various platforms to continue using them.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/how-to-delete-facebook-account/

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this article for like I have said many times…I have NEVER been on Facebook so I do not need to delete my account….but if you try please let my readers know if it is accurate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Hungaryfication Of The US

Most everyone that follows politics knows how much Trump admires the mini dictator of Hungary, Orban….he has even envisioned what would be nice for the US under his dynamic leadership…..let’s call it Hungaryfication by trump…..

This is an article I recently bookmarked for further review….

Regularly, Donald Trump is presented as a fascistic leader. Yet, he has no Italian-style Blackshirts roaming the streets and no Hitler-style SA or SS beating up opponents. Nor are there people rounded up and put in concentration camps or being tortured in a Pinochet-style football station.

There will be no Auschwitz in the USA. And, there weren’t even political assassinations under Trump’s first presidency (2017-2021) even though Trump’s far right presidency ended with a coup d‘état like storming of Capitol Hill which resulted in five deaths.

Perhaps, today’s fascism no longer comes in goose-steps. In fact, it may not come at all. Beyond all that, Donald Trump also lacks virtually all key ingredients of fascism.

Still, what Donald Trump might create is an even more sinister version of an anti-democratic far right populist regime.

Instead of outright fascism, Donald Trump is more likely to follow the rule book of Hungarian semi-dictator Viktor Orbán and his far right Fidesz party. Orbán’s right-wing populism created an autocratic and illiberal regime in which democracy became merely a facade.

Outward, it appears as if Hungary is still a democracy. Hungary has formal elections. Meanwhile, inwardly it shows all elements of a far right dictatorship in which democracy’s separation of powers – as outlined by Montesquieu – no longer exists and elections are downgraded to a manipulated process to certify Orbán’s authoritarian rule.

In short, Hungary’s parliament has been reduced to an appendage of Orbán’s right-wing populist party. Meanwhile, the previously independent judiciary and the legal system are under control of Orbán’s far right state.

Yet, there is more. Hungary’s crypto-democratic framework is concocted in such a way that it gives an awe-inspiring advantage to Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party. In other words, democracy takes place but Orbán’s system ensures that his party wins

The Hungaryfication of the USA

Change is coming…..and change will not be for the betterment of the nation….in my opinion.

All we can do is when we smell shit then say something.

I will do my part…..will you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Can Canada Be Ours?

+++This is not a suggestion to occupy but rather a lesson in what could possibly be done+++

Trump has shown signs of wanting Panama and Greenland and even suggested that we could as a nation annex Canada.

Canada: On Canada, he said he was willing to use “economic force” to acquire the nation, reports USA Today. “Canada and the United States—that would really be something,” he said. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”

Is that even a possibility?

Well let’s look at our history……

“We take nothing by conquest…Thank God,” wrote the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser, an influential Washington newspaper, in February 1847.

The United States had just purchased 55 percent of Mexico for US$15 million as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The pact concluded the bloody Mexican-American War, which claimed thousands of lives.

Despite the loss of life, and American ambitions to take all of Mexico, the painted the whole experience as a rightful “cession” of land rather than a conquest.

Every Canadian needs to pay attention to this bit of American history. In one treaty, the U.S. annexed the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. It subsequently illegally invaded Indigenous territory in the west.

Canada could be next—perhaps not immediately as the 51st state, but quite possibly as a U.S. territory that would deny Canadians any for Congress or the presidency, allow only some autonomy and make questions of citizenship ambiguous. The constitutional architecture exists in the U.S. to make it happen.

Impossible? Unthinkable? Many pundits dismiss Trump’s bellicose rhetoric as hot-headed bargaining. It’s just tough talk, they say. Some have argued his bluster is simply part of his favored “art of the deal” negotiating tactics.

That’s the wrong reading. How Trump could make good on the threat can be found in the U.S. Constitution. There is both potential and precedent for the U.S. to acquire territory through cession or subjugation.

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-fact-canada-american-territory.html

Like I stated before….a possibility.

Was this ever a real thought or just diarrhea of the mouth?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

For The Blood Pressure Watchers

A very cold Sunday of the new year and I will drop some FYI instead of my traditional probing questions.

This post is for any of my readers that suffer with a BP problem….and are looking for answers.

As we grow older it seems that we are inflicted with high blood pressure and have to constantly attempt to keep it in check.

Is it possible that the BP pressures could be better than we think?

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is often called the “silent killer” because it can increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious health problems without noticeable symptoms.

For many years, people have been told to worry if their blood pressure numbers creep above a certain range.

However, new research and expert opinions suggest that the situation might not always be as dire as it seems. For some people, high blood pressure may not be as dangerous as once thought, and the numbers alone don’t tell the whole story.

Blood pressure is typically measured with two numbers: systolic (the top number) and diastolic (the bottom number). For decades, a reading of 120/80 mmHg has been considered ideal, while anything above 140/90 is categorized as high.

Research has shown that not all cases of high blood pressure carry the same level of risk. For example, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine followed older adults with high blood pressure and found that for many, especially those aged 80 and above, lowering blood pressure too aggressively with medication didn’t always lead to better outcomes.

https://knowridge.com/2024/12/why-high-blood-pressure-numbers-might-not-always-be-alarming/

Talk to your doctor about these findings…..

I read this article that I felt I should pass onto my fellow sufferers….

++++But first….Please do not attempt anything medical on your own…. before you change anything consult your medical professional to be sure that it is a fit for your body++++

This is a claim of a natural treatment for high blood pressure….

Researchers from Pantox Laboratories propose that fasting could help reverse high blood pressure naturally by disrupting harmful metabolic cycles.

While a high-salt diet is widely recognized as a major contributor to high blood pressure, simply reducing salt intake often produces only modest results.

This suggests that salt might interact with other aspects of a modern diet to create self-sustaining cycles that keep blood pressure elevated, even when dietary salt is reduced.

Therapeutic fasting, which involves temporarily abstaining from food, has been shown to significantly lower high blood pressure. One reason for this effect is that fasting reduces insulin secretion, which is closely linked to blood pressure regulation.

By minimizing insulin levels, fasting may help reset the body’s metabolic balance and interrupt the cycles that maintain hypertension.

Recent studies have demonstrated that a structured regimen of water-only fasting, followed by a low-fat, low-salt, whole-food vegan diet, can lead to dramatic reductions in blood pressure without the need for medication.

These reductions are not temporary; patients who adhere to the follow-up diet often maintain their improved blood pressure levels over time.

This suggests that fasting, combined with a healthy maintenance diet, could offer a lasting solution for high blood pressure, potentially acting as a natural “cure.”

For those unable to commit to complete fasting, a protein-sparing modified fast—where protein is consumed in limited amounts to prevent muscle loss—might offer similar benefits.

If this approach proves effective, it could provide a safer and more practical way to implement fasting in outpatient settings, making it accessible to more people.

The implications of fasting extend beyond high blood pressure. Researchers suggest that its ability to break harmful metabolic cycles could also make it effective in treating other conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disorders.

For example, fasting followed by a protective maintenance diet may provide a powerful strategy for managing these conditions. If a metabolic disorder can be prevented—but not reversed—by a specific diet, combining fasting with the diet may offer a more comprehensive and effective treatment.

This research highlights the potential of therapeutic fasting as a natural, drug-free approach to managing chronic health conditions.

While further studies are needed to confirm its safety and efficacy in broader populations, fasting combined with a healthy, sustainable diet could offer new hope for patients seeking long-term solutions to high blood pressure and other metabolic disorders.

(knowridge.com)

Do not attempt this without advice from your doctor

That does it for me today…..enjoy your Sunday and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

IST Saturday News Dump–11Jan25

The end of the first full week of 2025…..we have had 3 mass shootings and a dangerous winter storm…..but time moves on and the Dump is due.

Locally–We have had a week of cold weather for us lows in mid 20s and highs in mid 40s to low 50s the average temps for this time of the year 40-65 and these temps are the coldest we have had in at least 5 years.

Personal–nothing much to report.

With all that said….time for a good healthy ‘Dump’…..

I recently read an article about crows and how they can hold grudges…..and now it seems they are not alone….

It’s not just humans who have trouble making amends—Earth’s 20 quadrillion ants aren’t quick to forgive, either.

Ants primarily rely on their fine-tuned olfactory sense to differentiate between the smell of members of their own family (i.e. safe ants) and ants from other colonies. A familiar scent while out foraging, for example, allows a worker ant to know which nearby ants are there to help, and which may be rivals hunting for the same resources. But new research from evolutionary biologists at Germany’s University of Freiburg indicates ants don’t just react in the moment—they retain knowledge of hostile encounters with neighboring enemies, and act accordingly.

According to their study published in Current Biology, scientists conducted two phases of experiments to determine if ants remember bad experiences with other ants, and how it influences their relationships. First, they placed ants into 60 second meet-and-greet scenarios: In one setting, the insects simply encountered some of their nestmates; another situation involved a group interacting with aggressive ants from “Nest A,” while a final group met yet another set of hostile bugs from “Nest B.” This was then repeated once for each group over five consecutive days. From there, scientists examined how the various ant groups subsequently reacted when they encountered the aggressive Nest A ants—either for the first time, once again, or in comparison to Nest B bugs.

https://www.popsci.com/science/ants-grudges/

All those sugary drinks…..I gave up on sugar many years ago….especially soft drinks….seems it was a wise decision on my part….

The consumption of sugary drinks contributed to an estimated 184,000 deaths worldwide in 2010. Just a decade later, that number had nearly doubled. A new study published Monday in Nature Medicine finds sugary drink consumption contributed to 340,000 deaths from Type 2 diabetes and heart disease in 2020. “Regulators and policymakers appropriately respond to tragic deaths, whether an airline crash or terrorism attack, but sugary drinks cause much more death and suffering, yet those deaths don’t move people in the same way because they are hidden,” study co-author Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Tufts University, tells the New York Times. “That has to change.”

The study, which estimates the burdens attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages in 184 countries, finds the drinks were linked to 2.2 million new cases of Type 2 diabetes (one in 10) and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease (one in 30), “with a disproportionate share of those cases concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America,” which have been increasingly targeted by soda companies amid declining sales in North America and Europe, per the Times. The beverages contributed to 48% of new diabetes cases in Colombia, almost 33% in Mexico, and 28% in South Africa, per the Guardian. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the drinks contributed to 31% of new diabetes cases and 11% of new heart disease cases.

Sugar-sweetened drinks—including soda, energy drinks, and some juice—cause blood-sugar levels to spike. “Drinking them regularly over time leads to weight gain, insulin resistance and a host of metabolic issues tied to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease,” the Guardian notes. But the low- and middle-income nations where these drinks are heavily marketed and sold are “often less well equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences,” Mozaffarian tells the outlet. “Much more needs to be done, especially in countries in Latin America and Africa where consumption is high and the health consequence severe.” The study does note that consumption in Latin America and the Caribbean is beginning to fall due to soda taxes and better labeling.

Space the final frontier…..we are always looking for a way to get humanity out among the starts and so far it is not going well….but scientist are suggest a new approach….

A team of physicists has outlined a possible way of sending probes deep into interstellar space within a reasonable timescale, using relativistic electron beams.

Space is that annoying combination of “really cool” and “really big”. We can see really awesome stuff going on out there, but unless we come up with ways to significantly improve our propulsion methods, we aren’t going to be taking a look at them any time soon.

Traveling at the speed of Voyager, it would take over 73,000 years to reach our nearest star, Proxima Centauri. Even if we had solid evidence of life on Proxima Centauri b – the planet discovered in Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone – it would be tough to persuade someone to commit their ancestors to travel through space on a generation ship for longer than it took humanity to go from just a few thousand people to 7.674 billion.

In 2016, the long-term project Breakthrough Starshot was set up to figure out a way that we could do the next best thing; send a probe to the Alpha Centauri system, potentially to photograph it before returning to Earth. 

https://www.iflscience.com/we-could-send-a-spacecraft-to-our-closest-stars-with-electron-beams-physicists-suggest-77525

So-called sports is getting more ridiculous….there is corn holing, adult Wiffel ball, adult kickball, dodgeball and a bunch of semi-sportslike things with Frizbbies….and now I see there is hobby horsing…..

From time to time you hear the opinion that a Hobby Horse is just a toy and has nothing to do with sport. This is a misconception. Hobby Horsing is a combination of sport, hobby and creative play that has gained widespread attention in recent years.

It may surprise you to learn that Hobby Horsing has a long tradition. It originated in Finland around 2002 and spread to other countries within a few years. In most European countries, it has experienced its greatest development in recent years. We value more than ever the time we spend together in the fresh air and with friends, as well as the promotion of creativity, gymnastics, dedication, responsibility and love for animals.

The development of horses has come a long way. From the early days when Hobby Horses were just a product of home creation, production has evolved into a technologically sophisticated process. The horses are constantly being further developed in order to perfect them and achieve the best sporting performance. In particular, the shape, the weight of the horse, the length and the diameter of the stick have been improved. Each horse is suited to a different discipline. Today, it is common for each competitor to own several Hobby Horses.

https://www.hobby-horse.com/blogs/blog/what-is-hobby-horsing

How long before this is on the sports network, ESPN?

Finally from the ‘Can’t Fix Stupid’ files…..

Police in Australia are looking for a suspect who ended up singed and pantsless after an arson attempt early on Christmas Day. The man—dubbed “Australia’s sloppiest arsonist” by 7news—was seen on CCTV with another man pouring flammable liquid on the front of a fast-food outlet in the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster East. “After setting the liquid alight, one of the offenders also succeeded in setting their pants on fire, forcing them to strip their burning garments as they fled,” Victoria Police said in a Facebook post

Video released by police shows one of the suspects with his pants engulfed in flames, the Guardianreports. He can be seen running with the burning pants caught on his ankle. Police said the suspects fled in a Toyota Tarago driven by a third suspect around 2:40am on Dec. 25. According to 7News, police are “hot on their heels.

This idiot reminds me of the would-be burglar that had to be rescued from a chimney of the house he intended on burglarize….idiots.

That does it for this weekend news dump…..please try to enjoy your weekend and as always….Be Well and Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”