Friday, November 7, 2025
Colluded..
After reading the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Oct. 28 report on President Joe Biden's cognitive decline and his inner circle's dishonest, deliberate cover-up, I'm furious.
Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, said in a statement that the report, based on 14 depositions and transcribed interviews with key Biden aides, shows that some staff "colluded to mislead the public" and went to great lengths to "sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished."
The report found evidence that Biden experienced a mental and physical decline so significant that senior White House officials covered it up by restricting his access to the public or ensuring that any access to him was heavily controlled.
Because of his decline, staff "facilitated executive actions without direct authorization from President Biden himself, including through misuse of the autopen and failures in documenting decision-making processes," the report's summary said.
Biden was suffering from declining health and that his administration was covering it up, raising ethical and practical questions about who was actually running the White House. This report confirms that and then some: Biden's inner circle knew he was in poor health, but instead of helping him or relieving him of his presidential duties, they sought to maintain power at any cost.
Just a tought.
Bilking..
An Oregon Democratic politician is now an international fugitive from justice after fleeing the country with her young son when she was charged with bilking an elderly man out of $30,000, authorities said.
Democrat Melissa Fireside, an ex-Clackamas County commissioner, crossed the border into Mexico on a fake passport and booked a ticket for Austria after going on the run with her 9-year-old son, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said Friday.
Fireside was charged in March with aggravated theft, forgery and other crimes for allegedly ripping off retired Safeway employee Arthur Petrone, her mom’s beau, by applying for a loan using his name.
However, the state justice department on Friday filed a motion to revoke Fireside’s bail after investigators determined that she wasn’t living at her Lexington, Oregon, home — a violation of the terms of her release, the attorney general said.
Machado..
When asked about the prospect of a Mamdani win, Machado pointed to Venezuela's history to make her point against the candidate:
Venezuela is a vivid example of the devastation that socialism and crime can bring to a society. Less than 20 years ago, Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America. Today, it's one of the poorest.
Thursday, November 6, 2025
Fear/Stress..
Exercise can regulate the brain's region associated with fear and stress, through two main mechanisms: it increases the activity of the prefrontal cortex, which exerts "top-down" control to inhibit the amygdala's fear response, and it alters the amygdala's functional connectivity with other brain regions.
- By stimulating the frontal regions of the brain, exercise strengthens the prefrontal cortex's ability to control the amygdala, a process that can help reduce stress and promote relaxation.
- Acute exercise can change how the amygdala connects with other brain areas. For instance, it can upregulate connectivity with regions involved in processing happiness and downregulate connectivity with those related to fear.
- Improvements in mood after acute exercise are linked to enhanced connectivity between the amygdala and other regions, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, which is involved in mood regulation.
- Regular physical activity can lower the metabolic activity of the amygdala that is associated with stress.
- By modulating the neural circuits between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, chronic exercise can improve the brain's resilience against stress.
- Exercise increases the availability of neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA, which have mood-boosting and anti-anxiety effects.