Open Thread - 11-28-2025 -
Sorry for the late posting. Must be lethargy from too much festivities yesterday.
Thanksgiving and the day after have always been my favorite holidays. A series of days - clean the house, cook, bake, prep for a crowd, then the house filled to capacity with gratitude for those present and those who live in our memories, and to complete the holiday a quiet reflective day. Then normal life continues.
Venezuela background the first 17 minutes
Why the U.S. Really Wants Maduro Gone 11/27/2025 (25:53 min)
Japan - China Update
Jeffrey Sachs warns: Japan militarism back 11/27/2025 (18:13 min)
Interesting slant - human rights violations by Japan and United States
The Undetermined Status Of Ryukyu 11/28/2025 (11:37 min)
Back to an old theme - drugs that should be avoided, used with caution and have the potential of increases adverse reactions as we age.
First - drugs with anticholinergic activity. There effect is accumulative so a single drug with high anticholinergic activity has the same potential of causing a problem as multiple drugs of low activity taken within the same time frame.
I found an easy to use calculator. Check the meds in your medicine cabinet prescription and non-prescription. If at high risk or experiencing potential issues discuss with your prescribing health professional for a plan of action.
Many of the medications that we commonly prescribe have anticholinergic properties. In patients over 65 years of age these can cause adverse events, such as confusion, dizziness and falls. These have been shown to increase patient mortality.
You can use this calculator to work out the Anticholinergic Burden for your patients; a score of 3+ is associated with an increased cognitive impairment and mortality.
Seeing this article Wednesday prompted bringing up the subject of drugs once again. I was encouraged to see the problem of some heavy duty mental drugs used way too much being discussed in the lay press. Worth reading the complete article even if you do not agree with the politics of the site or author.
The No‑Exit Mental Health System: The Federal Government Puts You on Psychiatric Drugs and Never Lets You Off Joe Hoft 11/26/2025
The Federal Government is the largest funder of mental health services and psychiatric drugs, yet these same federal agencies that provide mental health services do not provide any information for safely getting off the drugs. AbleChild believes that as the largest supplier of psychiatric drugs, the federal government should also provide an “Exit plan” for deprescribing psychiatric drugs.
Medicaid and Medicare Part D treat psychiatric drugs as “must-cover” commodities: federal rules require drug plans to cover all or nearly all antidepressants and antipsychotics as protected classes, ensuring easy access and steady revenue for manufacturers. With Medicaid alone, antipsychotics generated more than 73 million prescription claims and more than 6 billion dollars in one year, accounting for roughly 9% of all Medicaid drug spending and 10% of prescriptions.
...
Yet despite clear evidence that stopping psychiatric drugs can be medically complex and dangerous, U.S. law does not guarantee access to slow tapers, compounding, or close follow-up, when patients want to come off the drugs. A few specialty guidelines now outline careful benzodiazepine tapers and warn against abrupt cessation, but they are advisory documents, not enforceable rights. In practice, patients are routinely placed on medications with known withdrawal syndromes, while being left to navigate the exit alone or with minimal support when they try to stop.Because coverage rules privilege pills, they tilt the entire system toward chronic drug dependence instead of time-limited, skill-building care.
Comments
Hey, good morning
.
An interesting expose on mental meds. Would rather avoid
medical solutions to head disorders.
This is a deep dive into the affairs of Venezuela.
A bone-headed tactic of a failing imperium.
https://alexcoxfilms.wordpress.com
Thank you for hosting this black Friday.
Zionism is a social disease
One of the most common reason the meds are started in our age
group is as a chemical restraint in an institution, especially hospitals. Just takes one nurse to request an order from the Doc. Maybe it is late at night, facility is short staffed, patient is not asleep and paperwork needs to be done. There is time to add a diagnosis later to meet medical best practices or regulatory requirements in nursing homes accepting federal funds. Hospitals, residential care homes, assisted living, group homes and foster homes have no federal regulations encouraging inappropriate use and states vary greatly. Family and loved ones need to watch out for anyone in a care facility.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
I am definitely
thankful for my wife and I still being here, and also for this community still being here to support us all.
It was a good day. We did linguine with white clam sauce, inspired primarily by the fact that we still had perfectly usable parsley in the outdoor container garden. I harvested all of it, because we have single-digit temps coming this week, and chopped it all. I'm also making some chimichurri with the last of it- and that finishes our local produce for the year.
This is the latest we've ever had any outdoor herbs. It has been a very warm fall. Last year we had already had 2 feet of snow by now. We're dry as a bone, and flammable... Hope that everybody else had a good one as well.
I now intend to spend the rest of the day not spending any money. Be safe out there!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Day of no buying...
exactly! This Fall is weird, for sure. We still have peppers growing in the greenhouse. Usually it's too cold, even in the greenhouse, by this time of year. But, we are going to keep these plants and see if they will last over winter. If so, hmmm, we've got a new way to grow peppers!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Been a warm fall
most days well above freezing and the coldest night has only been 21.
I have a pepper plant which has been set outside for the summer and brought in for the winter for three years. Originally was unaware they could live multiple years.
In a OT a couple of years ago you mentioned a perennial herb tasting like celery. What was its name? I remember checking its growing zone requirement and might survive here in a protected space.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Wondering the secret to a great
white clam sauce. In the past have enjoyed some great servings at a few restaurant, most of them though are mediocre including when I fix it myself.
Been inspired by the parsley and other herbs grown by some of the C99 members. My parsley self seeded this year and I might be able to harvest one more time to try chimichurri.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Hi there, in the past I have used dry sherry which really
adds to the flavor of the sauce. Also a bit of nutmeg or dry vermouth. Yum, yum.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.
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I suppose that if you want bad things --
-- you are a bad judge of character, too. The video below is worth seeing in full:
You have Republicans now waking up to the fact that their whole scene is a disaster. I'm imagining Charlie Kirk, in the last split-second before his brain-death, recognizing that there are additional costs to selling your soul to Zionists. In the case above, it's Trump. Did Marjorie Taylor Greene not understand that Donald Trump's singular preoccupation, the only real love in his life, is Donald Trump, and that she did not even show up on his radar? It's no wonder her political positions were crap. Maybe she'll run for President, in which case she'll probably trounce whatever creature of money the Democrats run.
Or here's a fun one: Tucker Carlson, feeling wronged by Republicans.
I just love his notion that MAGA was in some mythical fantasy about free speech or against identity politics. MAGA, of course, has never offered anyone the right to say bad things about Donald Trump, and was always about (pure European-ancestry) identity politics.
I suppose I was going to write something titled "the Republican Party's propaganda line" to complement the one I wrote on the Democrats. The Democrats' defenses against truth are money and power. Things they say are merely campaign promises, stuff they couldn't imagine themselves doing once they took the money and lied to the public. Obama's promises are the classic example of this. The Republicans, on the other hand, are so deep into ideology that it shows up as character flaw or some other notion exposed in the studies of Doctor Freud. The classic example, I suppose, is Alex Jones's defense of DOGE, which sucked by any measure you care to name. One thinks of Emmanuel Todd's notion that Trump is religious, but with all the values inverted. Or maybe the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth: "Fair is foul and foul is fair."
"It hasn't been okay to be smart in the United States for centuries" -- Frank Zappa
something about his satanic majesty
.
is a bit bothersome
Zionism is a social disease
I might add --
1) MAGA's support for pure-European-ancestry identity politics is the main reason those people go for Zionism. "Netanyahu" is Polish under the veneer.
2) In the second video, Russell Dobular mentioned that Donald Trump never won a real election. and that 2016 and 2024 were your basic Democrat screw-ups of the most strenuous multiple-own-goal effort. This is perhaps the most important insight of that video, because it shows how "popular mandates" are created in a two-party system. One has to imagine that a certain portion of the Trump electorate voted for him because if he were to be elected everyone would be focused upon what it was necessary to oppose. And so, in that vein, we now have Tucker Carlson interviewing George Galloway...
"It hasn't been okay to be smart in the United States for centuries" -- Frank Zappa
Will watch the video in the am
This year both men have had to face a different reality about their native countries then had experienced previously.
Interesting hypothesis regarding MAGA and Zionism. Who are "those people"?
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
MAGA Zionists I suppose
sorry about "those people"
"It hasn't been okay to be smart in the United States for centuries" -- Frank Zappa
Due Dissidence is a hard to watch
It seems they spend the whole time mocking others and trying to shape my opinions not providing new information for better understanding of issues. Basically they provide shallow insight while being self congratulatory for their superiority compared to others.
MAGA is a marketing strategy. It worked to get Trump elected. Once the primary goal was achieved each faction of the MAGA movement had their own imagined criteria to grade his governing success. Some of the factions appear to feel he is not worth future support. To better understand them listen to their podcasts and writings not simply outtakes selected to ridicule.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Well, okay.
Although I'm not entirely sure where exactly they rather think they are _superior_. Rather, I see it as that their attempts to make fun of American politics often appear lame or grotesque. The politics itself is pretty dreadful when one compares it to the small graces which adorn everyday life. That's what you get I suppose when you're trying to talk about business as usual in a country in decline. It's also why I think most Americans want politics to just go away and so they vote for major parties if they vote at all and don't talk about it.
The podcasters are generally trying to "entertain" to fetch money, and a lot of this "being entertaining" reduces the quality of what they do. Max Blumenthal usually says things which are horrifying but I usually want to know what they are, and so when he tries to be funny it usually falls flat and I just want him to shut up. Sabrina Salvati is really good with mutual aid but most of what she covers in her podcasts is trivial. There's a lot of repetition in the Judge Napolitano podcasts -- Russia is beating Ukraine, the US has declared war on everyone, yes, we get it already. For example.
"It hasn't been okay to be smart in the United States for centuries" -- Frank Zappa
Good morning, soe!
I am glad you and yours enjoyed your feast. I will admit to being "bad". While I love desserts, I resist them. A gallon of ice cream will last me a year. I typically eat a piece of pie maybe once a year, then give the rest of it away. But for whatever reasons, I bought a coffee cake and a pie and a Danish, and have been pecking away at them. Sigh...I will have to work off those calories somehow.
I started your info presentation with the psychotropic drugs and their side-effects. I can't emphasize enough how doing those drugs affects a person's life in so many legal ways. They will cause you to lose custody of your children if you are on them, or if you put your kids on them. You cannot carry a gun or purchase a gun. You obviously cannot get a hunting permit. You can't get hired for many jobs. I currently represent a veteran who tried to kill himself. I represented a young man on various prescription drugs for an act of violence, got him out of jail and kept him out of prison, but he wound up in a fight with his dad, and the dad wound up shooting and killing his son in self-defense. My best guess is that the DC shooter was on some sort of prescription drugs.
I am curious to learn if this is mostly a USA phenomenon, or it if is all over the globe.
After I have lunch, JtC and I will go over his MRI report in detail. I usually come up with a question or two for his dr. Still, we got this very encouraging news on Thanksgiving, so it was truly a day to give thanks.
Speaking of thanks, we all appreciate your OT.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Evening
It was the mention of desert - had to make a small batch of brownies. Then took a walk around the field.
The psychotropic drugs expanded usage started out in the US. Use in the elderly as chemical restraints was so great restriction for use began to to be included in federal regulations impacting nursing homes since the 1980's.The regs get addressed every few years as work arounds are developed.
The use in children keeps growing. They never really have a chance to say no and are stuck with a mental condition diagnosis. The understanding of how the use effects a developing mind is not well understood.
I am so glad the MRI shows progress. Thanks for sharing.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Good evening soe, thanks for the column, info and OT.
Had to look up anticholinergic drugs and discovered that they include
I rely upon diphenhydramine for certain allergy issues and have never nticed any side effects. Not to challenge the information, but I suspect that it is a question of dosage or something like that. The notable thing about it is that works, unlike a lot of otc meds that pretty much donothing to alleviate ones symptons.
Meantime, have a great weekend.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Imodium when on rare occasions
is necessary, Allergy Relief if stung or bitten by ants, wasps, scorpions, thrips, or mosquitoes.
Still, Tylenol PM is in the medicine cabinet of all my friends. They need to know this.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thanks for following up with the info
As one ages or progression of a chronic condition may change the ability or rate the body metabolizes various drugs. There are definite trends but each person is unique in their response. Plus dose and frequency will impact the risk factor. Seen a twenty year old who could not tolerate 12.5 mg occasional dose and 80+ yo on 50 mg four times a day with no adverse reactions. Both scenarios are outliers of normal expectations.
Ironically it appears your highest risk is having to receive medical care outside Kaiser and not receiving the med due to nearly all treatment protocols indicating diphenhydramine is contraindicated in persons over 65. Knowing a risk gives one time to plan to avoid a problem.
Enjoy your weekend.
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
Liked those video choices SOE
I watched them when I got home yesterday.
Re Larry's video on Venezuela here's some stuff on the Bag of Piglets episode:
Judge orders arrest of ex-Green Beret accused of plotting to invade Venezuela after he fails to show up in court
Judge orders arrest of ex-Green Beret
Updated on: November 1, 2025 / 7:32 AM EDT / CBS/AP
Grayzone interview of Goudreau about a month ago. I may have posted this before. In light of current circumstances it makes one wonder why he is being prosecuted. It's long video over an hour. He's not a nice guy. I wonder how much what he says is trustworthy. Nevertheless, it all falls into the category of admissions in terms of evidence. I just thought it was relevant in light of Larry's video above. He's a fugitive still as far as I can tell.
Below is a pro-democratic party pundit, with whom I often disagree, yet this coverage is worthwhile for it's discussion of the law of armed conflict in relation to the initial boat strike in which survivors in the water after the strike were ordered killed. It's the first 8 minutes of the video.
I was tied up over the holidays. Belated best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday weekend. Took the back roads to avoid Black Friday traffic to get back home yesterday. Contrary to the reports I heard the local mall here was extremely busy. They need the business, business has been slow there all year per Ms. So. Traffic was heavy on the interstates which I avoided as much as possible.
語必忠信 行必正直