96 - I'm Still Here!!

 I wasn't sure I'd find this "blog" - so many changes in life around me and the world.....but here it is and who knows if my readers are still here - or care !

When I turned 96 this past December I decided it was time to give up my driver's license - 80 years without an accident was a pretty good record, I started driving at age 16 in NYC - (the driving age had been lowered because WWII was on and there was a shortage of drivers). And now with all the crazies on the road, texting/driving or talking on the phone....if someone would hit my car who do you think would get blamed?

Problem: I could no longer live in my home (after 35 years) without a car because the wonderful city of El Paso TX did not offer public transportation within walking distance - and even though neighbors and friends assured me they'd take me wherever/whenever I had appts. etc. I decided to move to an apt. community called Monte Vista, a retirement community, which offered transportation in addition to other perks. Big bucks - but my aging home was also asking for big bucks.....so here I am, still emptying boxes, throwing out stuff, (and I gave away 2/3 of my home's furnishings before I moved!)

Big adjustment - but I'll succeed and may soon start ranting about what's happened to my favorite country. Have to think twice because D.C. seems like early 1930's Germany when the Austrian painter decided being a despot beat painting. Have to be careful because the illegal South African moneymaker is spying all over the place - not only Space.

So - wishing my friends a  better 2025 than expected - good health - (Mediterranean diet is best!) and tons of gooooood luck!

"Age is Just a Number" - mine is listed!!!

 "Enjoying"  El Paso's hottest month of the year - June - and the 100+ temp. the past few days. Best reason to stay indoors and hope greedy El Paso Electric doesn't let us down.

I'm watching less tv "news" these days - and certainly not reading a daily print newspaper; the former  El Paso Times is a Gannett  USA Today publication and it's questionable if the editor  even lives here! I do read an online publication,  ElPasoMatters.org (started by Bob Moore, former El Paso Times editor) and I'm devoting more time to reading (and sometimes re-reading) all the wonderful books in my house.  

When it comes to writing - Ageism - is my newest  "cause" and it should concern anyone who expects to live a few more years. The hucksters are out in full force and it amazes me how many supposedly intelligent people watch the ridiculous tv commercials touting "memory" meds. We usually see an attractive couple (she might have a few gray hairs) and they're "doing things" and telling us how improved their "memory" is since they started taking these remarkable meds. Really? So how do they know how their "memory" would be if they didn't take these "magical" pills? No prescription needed, thank you, they just continue to flush away their hard earned money!

Why are so many "suckers" not  questioning these ridiculous commercials? Did they miss the critical analysis part of their education? That certainly won't improve with the pitch for "charter schools" to take needed money away from public schools.

On a positive note - kudos to the U.S.P.S.! I sent a package (books) to someone who relocated to New Orleans from El Paso and unfortunately had the wrong house number. A lovely woman in my local post office pointed out to me that this might get sent back to me since it didn't register correctly with her numbers. I decided to take a chance - and obviously I was wrong. Tracking the package (which seemed lost after ten days) I spoke to a postal employee in Metairie (New Orleans) who said they were considering it a "lost" package. 

But wait - there's more!!! That evening, my friend  called and said he just received the books!!!  I remember the old (ancient?) USPS motto: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Now I'm adding: even to incorrect addresses! 

The Best Government Money Can Buy!!!

 So our "trusted" FDA approved a new drug Aducanumab for Alzheimer's disease -  disregarding the recommendation by its own advisory panel not to approve the drug.

Could this have something to do with money???????

More comments from concerned scientists: "Data that cognitive decline is slower is thin"....Biogen juggled material/info to suit their results......"Biogen could only show that in one study it’s drug slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s for a mere 4 months. It’s other study showed no benefit at all. The FDA’s expert panel recommended against approval for the excellent reason that there is no proof the drug works. Ignoring facts, the FDA approved a drug that will benefit no one but Biogen and it’s shareholders. 

Biogen’s CEO said the $56,000 annual price for this drug (aducanumab - Aduhelm), is “fair.” (????Really? – for a drug that doesn’t work?)

This drug is in dangerous snake oil territory ......we don't know about possible  side effects……and those living with or caring for loved ones with dementia are easy prey. 

 We have the best government money can buy!!!!

I haven't contributed to my blog for a while - but this FDA ruling woke me up!

I’m 92, caring for my 94 yr old husband (Harvard Medical School Graduate,  former practicing OB-GYN MD, Professor at Stanford)who now suffers from dementia. My husband worked at the  FDA when a drug had to be absolutely efficacious before it was released to the public. (His book “Proving New Drugs” -written in 1969 - is still worth reading!)

So – ignoring facts, the FDA approved a drug that will benefit no one but Biogen and it’s shareholders.

 This drug is in the same category as the ones touted on tv every night by people who take these "magic potions" and say their memory is great! Really! And how would their memory be if they didn't take the drug? Who knows? (In my day we would say "the Shadow knows"!) 

Joyous Voting during the reign of the Orange King

 In a “great America” mailing your ballot is only available to the Orange King and his staff . Ordinary citizens are too crooked to be trusted with mailed ballots so the DeJoyous rich new Postmaster got busy cutting services and promising less money to the Post Office in the interests of efficiency. 

 

The Orange King was quick with his Kamala Harris  criticism; he called her mean and nasty. Probably the limit to his vocabulary . And of course the usual “birtherism” label oozed out of his spigot. As the New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz noted in one of his satirical pieces:  the O. King doesn’t think Oakland is in the United States. ( I guess the King thinks it’s the  land of Oak- like Greenland is the land of Green, and Iceland is the land of Ice.

 Providence RI Catholic Bishop was crying about an upcoming Presidential ticket without a Catholic? Whoa – 2008, 2012 don’t count? And now, 2020, our Catholic Biden returns; Bishop Tobin are you just waking up a la Rip Van Winkle? Or are you in the Orange King’s intellectual class?

 More Orange King ramblings: referring to writers who  received Pulitzer prizes (and the King doesn’t like what they report ):  “these writers, the writers got Pulitzer Prizes, and that shows you a Pulitzer Prize is worthless. And frankly, you ought to start a petition to return the Pulitzer Prize……”

 The White supremacists offers greatness to lilywhite Christians. And when the gun totin’ lilywhites have problems they resort to familiar old saws like throwing in the Soros name. Guess who wants to join the club? Maine’s Senator Susan Collins is  running scared in a reelection bid because her opponent Sara Gideon, who has more guts and empathy seems to be gaining on her. So what does Collins do? How about trying a bit of anti-Semitism – like:  "There's  all these left-wing, uh, hedge fund owners that are financing Super PACs and financing Sara's [Gideon] campaign, such as Donald Sussman and George Soros….. Oh yeah – pull out the Soros name – that will always bring in a few extra White Supremacists.

 Even more frightening: A wealthy Georgia businesswoman, Marjorie Greene, defender of the King’s conspiracy theory QAnon – purveyors of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic  rantings won her primary and thus is a shoo-in to win her election in a very red district.  Guess who sent her hearty congratulations? The Orange King’s tweet noted she was “strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!” Why is this different than the rantings of early Nazi days in Germany?

 New rules from the Orange King’s White Palace: the head of the Food and Drug Administration is forbidden from talking to the press about the pandemic unless an administration minder is present. Number of dead Americans (from Corona Virus) climbing higher every day – so what does the Orange King do? Make sure the thought police are “guarding” (read: censor) Federal experts whose expertise might publicly contradict whatever the Orange King dribbles out his mouth on any particular day. This works well with the King’s new rules on virus data collection, new coronavirus database. Forget about facts/science. The Stable Genius King is running the show. 

And, having written about food for umpteen years – how about this egg story from New York? Hillandale Farms, a New York producer/wholesale distributor of eggs is being sued by the State’s  Attorney General Letitia James. The suit alleges the company gouged the prices of eggs during the COVID-19 pandemic - more than four million cartons of eggs sold to major grocery chains, U.S. military facilities, and wholesale food distributors in March and April of 2020.  Yeah! Go Letitia! (I’ve been buying eggs at Target – great prices all the time!)

 

Demons and Witches licensed by Texas Medical License Board

Last week our Orange King praised a Houston doctor for her use of hydroxychloroquine in "curing" 300 patients who were suffering from the coronavirus.  

This “learned” pediatrician/minister, Dr. Stella Immanuel,  who emigrated from Cameroon (one of the Orange King’s S.H. African countries) , has  other mind boggling theories; she claims that medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility, and impotence are caused by sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives”—a phenomenon she describes as “witches and demons having sex with people in a dreamworld.” She added that the witches and demons “ are responsible for miscarriages, impotence”…….And there’s more -  in her  2013 “sermon” - she continued, saying the witches and demons "are responsible for serious gynecological problems,……. we call them all kinds of names—endometriosis, we call them molar pregnancies, we call them fibroids, we call them cysts, but most of them are evil deposits from the spirit husband.”

 I checked and noted that she was licensed to practice in my state by the Texas Medical License Board.  OMG…can you imagine bringing a child to this woman’s office for treatment/care?

Disgust department: How about Georgia's Senator David Perdue having to pull one of his political ads showing his opponent, Jon Ossoff with a new nose; Perdue's buddies decided a computer adjusted bigger nose would make Ossoff look "more Jewish" which sells well with Perdue's anti-semitic followers. 

And South Carolina's Cracker Boy Graham darkened the skin of his Black opponent, Jaime Harrison in his political ads. Is cracker boy running scared?

 On a happier, brighter note: I don't usually write about medical studies that haven't had sufficient time/controls and human participants to prove a thesis. But, occasionally an interesting item pops up that will put a smile on all my dog loving friends:

 Eight dogs,  part of the German Armed Forces, were trained for a week to detect the Corona virus in samples of saliva. Then they were given more than 1,000 infected and non-infected samples and were able to detect 94% of cases. They correctly identified 157 positive samples and 792 negative samples but missed 30 positive samples and gave false positives for 33 samples.

The study was a small pilot project tested by the German Armed Forces, the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover and the Hanover Medical School.

The Meshuggener Orange King and his devoted courtiers

In the Orange King’s Sunday, July 19^th  TV interview with Chris Wallace, he told Chris that he “aced” his cognitive assessment test at Walter Reed – which included some  “very hard” questions towards the end of the test.

Here are sample very hard category questions:

Identifying the similarity between a train and a bicycle.

Repeating the sentence: “The cat always hid under the couch when dogs were in the room.”

Name at least 11 words beginning with the same letter  in one minute.

My question: How many people have a routine(?) cognitive assessment test when visiting their physicians?      Those with a possible Meshuggener diagnosis?

A few items on my plate that guarantee indigestion:

Crassy Cornyn -  my Senator who "represents" me in D.C. - urges constituents to keep in touch - so I sent an e-mail asking if his representation of Texans also includes service people and their families who live here. I was waiting for a comment from him after reading about KGB Pootie Boy's involvement with the Taliban, killing American service people in Afghanistan.
So I got an answer telling me why moving the Embassy in Israel was the right thing to do....etc.    Now that's what I call representation!
We really need MJ Hegar to take his place in November!!!!

Oy Goya! Bad enough that the head of this company was busy blessing the Orange King - but when Daddy's girl, Princess Ivanka  tweeted her  Goya slogan holding up a can of beans....Whoa! Where's the protest at her illegal ploy:

Federal employees may not use  public office…. position or title  to ….. endorse any product, service or enterprise; or to give the appearance of governmental sanction.

 (Of course in the Orange Kingdom there are special ethics, laws and rules!)

Oh yes -  the Orange King did his share - posing in the White Castle with a bunch of G. products....

Just sent another e-mail to Crassy Cornyn asking for a comment about unmarked cars, unidentified warriors picking up people in Portland, Oregon. Wonder how or if he has a form letter for that? Absolutely shocking and soooo scary. 

Wonder if  I should hire a guard when I take out my trash at night?

The Portland terror filled nights  are reminders that the Orange King is no different than the German house painter with a mustache and the Italian rolypoly creature in Europe's early 1930's or Argentina's Redondo,(the Peron replacement)  in the 1970's. 

And still the amazing silence from the Orange King's courtiers....they're terrified of him because he's a  meshuggener !

And finally if you have any doubts about the sanity of the Orange King have a look at some of his utterances in the Rose Garden (sure doesn't smell like roses any more)  on Thursday, July 16, 2020: 

“So we have many exciting things that we’ll be announcing over the next eight weeks, I would say? Things that nobody has even contemplated, thought about, thought possible, and things that we’re gonna get done, we have gotten done, we started in most cases. But it’s gonna be a very exciting eight weeks, a, uh, eight weeks like....... 

Il Pagliacco con Capelli Arancini (apologies to Verdi)

Another tell all book - this time by the Orange King's niece, Mary Trump. The King tried to prevent release of the book - no luck.

She wrote that in 2015, speaking to the King's sister, (her aunt)  Federal Appeals Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, about the King's plans to run for president, the Judge said:  “He’s a clown — this will never happen.”

Shades of a Verdi opera?
Today's version "Il Pagliacco con Capelli Arancini";  the composer? A group effort, including lyricist Stephen Miller and orchestra arrangements by Signor Ba Barr Black Sheep. As for the  opera's plot - so far no stabbings, kidnappings or public mad scenes but hope springs eternal!
Will keep you posted on dates of  free streaming.....