New Faces of Cancer: Young, Fit Women in 20s and 30s Struck Down by Killer Disease

While cancer has long been considered a disease of old age, a surge in cases among Gen Z and millennials is gradually turning that trend on its head.

Since 1990, cases of some types of cancers in young people have almost doubled in the US, even as rates have slowed or fallen in their parents and grandparents.

Sydney Towle, from California, was just 23 when she was diagnosed with bile duct cancer in early August 2023 after doctors discovered a ‘sizable mass’ in her stomach that had been growing for four months.

‘I’m typically an active person but suddenly I started feeling short of breath, and this strange burning sensation took hold in my tummy,’ she shared.

The young and ‘active’ Californian admitted that she had initially overlooked her symptoms and is now urging others via social media not to skip their regular health checkups.

Bile duct cancer, also known as cholangiocarcinoma, is an aggressive type of cancer that starts in the bile ducts.

It can affect people of different ages but it is more commonly diagnosed in adults over the age of 50.

Cases of some types of cancers in young people have almost doubled in the US, even as rates have slowed or fallen in their parents and grandparents

Cases of some types of cancers in young people have almost doubled in the US, even as rates have slowed or fallen in their parents and grandparents

[…]

‘It’s tough for me to plan for the future at all or expect anything when everything is so fragile around my diagnosis and treatment,’ she said.

‘It’s also really hard to plan in the short term, such as dinners or going out with friends, when I don’t know how I’ll feel physically or emotionally on a given day.

‘There are so many things I want to do now, given that I don’t know how much longer I have, but I can’t plan my bucket list or any fun trips while receiving treatment and not knowing where surgery will take me.’

Ms Towle, who recently fulfilled one of her dreams by moving to New York, is currently undergoing aggressive treatment targeting the tumor with a variety of treatments, including chemotherapy and experimental drugs.

Click here to read the full article.

Commentary by Dr. William Makis

This is a type of “soft disclosure” – telling women to expect cancer in their 20s and 30s, without telling them that the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are causing this phenomenon.

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/cancer-young-fit-women-struck-down/5873988

Corporate Media Meltdown Over Trump’s CDC Director Pick Dr. Dave Weldon

Corporate Media Meltdown Over Trump's CDC Director Pick Dr. Dave Weldon

Dr Jeffrey Jaxen

Former seven-term congressman Dr. David Weldon was chosen by President-elect Donald Trump going into this past weekend to serve as director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Amidst the flurry of possible appointments grabbing headlines, Dr. Weldon has the opportunity to change the way America has handled public health for decades.The Washington Post described Dr. Weldon in the second sentence of its breaking news article as “…a strong critic of the CDC, especially its vaccine program.” The reporting meant the sentence to be a negative, ironically, it’s probably now a breath of fresh air for most Americans post-COVID.

“…increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves” wrote Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, less than a month ago when admitting most people don’t believe corporate/legacy media anymore. It’s like WAPO’s recent reporting on Weldon already forgot this warning.

The New York Times claimed that Dr. Weldon was “skeptical of vaccine safety,” a designation that would have worked to neutralize his voice in years past when the outlet still garnered attention and respect.

STAT News wrote, “The former Florida congressman sponsored legislation that would have carved out the CDC’s vaccine safety research…”

The Vaccine Safety Bill to ‘carve out research’ Dr. Weldon introduced in 2007 wanted to establish an independent agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to handle the nation’s vaccine safety. His reasoning at the time was that the CDC had an inherent conflict of interest being responsible for both vaccine safety and promotion—an issue unchanged to this day.

In Weldon, the public also finds a rare leader who has been willing to ask politically forbidden questions about links between vaccines and autism along with the greater questions about health outcomes of children receiving HHS’s childhood vaccine schedule compared with children who had not been vaccinated. In addition to why there’s been limited investigation to determine what children may be as risk of being harmed by vaccines.

The thing I continue to find extremely disturbing is the fact that the CDC still does not allow researchers access to the vaccine safety data…The best way to get answers on the vaccine safety data is to open it up and let objective scientists come in and look at it.” –Rep. Dave Weldon at the Vaccines & Autism House Government Reform Committee 2002

One of the key data tranches Weldon is referring is vaccine safety datalink or VSD. A monitoring system using electronic health record data from health sites around the country to assess vaccine safety and detect adverse events in near-real time. Also a system that the public and independent researchers are blocked from accessing.

Besides the possibility of allowing the sunlight of independent researchers to comb through once-hidden vaccine data while dedicating resources to health-affirming tools outside of one-size-fits-all shots, Dr. Weldon will have veto power over the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

ACIP makes recommendations about which vaccines are added to the U.S. schedule, among other decisions. The committee needs final approval from the director of the CDC to implement their calls. Dr. Weldon would hold a power position over a committee who unanimously rubber-stamped every COVID vaccine and booster from infants to the elderly, among other questionable call throughout the years leading to reduced public trust.

Another approach long-called for, and even once implemented by the CDC, would be to automate their Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to instantly detect and report potential safety issues with the shots they promote.

In 2006 this was attempted through a $1M HHS grant to create a spontaneous reporting system to VAERS at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. The researchers found that “fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported” yet predictably, the CDC never followed up.

As many new to this conversation are rushing the gates to further their careers or gain influence and power on the back of the rapid political change we find ourselves at the beginning of, there have been those holding a strong space with little fanfare. Dr. Dave Weldon is one such individual.

His decades-long hopes to reform the CDC and, more importantly, protect American children and families from unrestrained harms brought upon so many by liability-free injectable pharmaceutical products which have enjoyed a privileged position away from full public and scientific scrutiny may soon see the light of day.

[…]

Via https://jeffereyjaxen.substack.com/p/corporate-media-meltdown-over-trumps

Trump Transition Team Signs Modified White House Agreement (Rejecting Surveillance This Time)

The Last Refuge

The President Trump transition team has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to start the process of transferring control of the federal government.  The landing teams from each of the cabinets will now begin to engage with their exiting counterparts.

There were many articles written about the delays in signing the agreements.  However, President Trump waited until he has his cabinet fully assembled before signing the first part that permits the landing teams to engage.  The second part with government provided offices and technology is NOT being accepted.

President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, announced the Trump transition team has refused to sign an MOU with the Government Services Administration (GSA), and will not be using cell phones, computers, offices or “any technology” provided by the GSA.  This is a smart move to avoid the Deep State surveillance situation that was faced in the first term.

In the first Trump administration, the GSA had wiretaps, office bugs, and gave all the electronic communication information from the Trump transition to the FBI, IC and later Robert Mueller. In essence, the GSA spied on the Trump team, then gave all the data to the operatives who were in place to target them.  The Trump team is not making this mistake again.

The Trump transition team is also not going to use the office space provided by the GSA and will instead have their own offices and security systems in place to coordinate the transition to power. From Politico:

WASHINGTON DC – […] The Trump team’s unprecedented delay in signing these agreements, weeks after being declared the winner of the election, had alarmed former officials and ethics experts who warned it could lead to conflicts of interest and leave the new government unprepared to govern on Day One.

In the Tuesday announcement, Wiles suggested the Trump transition will not sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, which would have allowed them to receive federal funding, cybersecurity support and government office space, pledging instead to fund the transition with private dollars, run it out of private facilities, and deploy their own “existing security and information protections” for sensitive data.

The transition, Wiles said, “will operate as a self-sufficient organization, adding that declining government funding will “save taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”

And while Wiles also pledged in the Tuesday statement to publicly disclose the private donors to the transition and “not accept foreign donations,” there will be no legal mechanism to enforce those promises of transparency.

The lack of federal cybersecurity support could also make the Trump transition a softer target for foreign hackers — who already successfully penetrated the campaign earlier this year.

“That’s something that in 2020 was maybe the single most important worry of the [Biden] transition team — that they would be hacked, and all of this information, including intelligence information, personal information about job applicants, would be threatened,” said Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at CUNY’s John Jay College who wrote a book about Biden’s transition. “It’s imperative that the Trump Transition Team has installed the proper procedures to protect itself.”

White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said the Biden administration is concerned about the ramifications of their successors forgoing GSA support, but remains “committed to an orderly transition.”

“While we do not agree with the Trump transition team’s decision to forgo signing the GSA MOU, we will follow the purpose of the Presidential Transition Act which clearly states that ‘any disruption occasioned by the transfer of the executive power could produce results detrimental to the safety and wellbeing of the United States and its people,’” she said.

In the White House memo, Sharma added, the Trump transition “agreed to important safeguards to protect non-public information and prevent conflicts of interest, including who has access to the information and how the information is shared,” and also agreed to publicly share the ethics agreements it is imposing on its own employees. (read more)

[…]

Via https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/11/26/trump-transition-team-signs-modified-white-house-agreement-without-govt-technology-to-conduct-surveillance/

Trump vs the Bureaucracy

No pay for DOGE? Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to serve without salary ...

Hooper’s War

The war has begun. It’s Trump, Elon, Vivek Ramaswamy, and their new Department of Government Efficiency versus the Federal bureaucracy in a no-holds barred cage deathmatch. The first punches have been thrown; who will win? At stake are your tax dollars.

U.S. election night 2024 was a somber affair in Europe, as U.S. officials in most European capitals abandoned the usual watch parties. Watch parties used to be a long-standing American diplomatic tradition, held at embassies with invited local guests to watch the election results dribble in, showcasing our democracy. Great care was taken to make the party patriotic but not partisan; both candidates were featured and usually a mock election was held, with host country government officials voting one way or another. About the only bad part of the night was listening to American diplomats like me struggling to explain the Electoral College system in bad Mandarin or high school Spanish.

But there were few parties this year, thanks to what some call “The Trump Effect.” Many officials are still hurting from the 2016 election that left many top members of America’s diplomatic corps exposed as they absorbed the killer election results in front of journalists, foreign diplomats, and local officials. “I don’t think there was appetite to watch another Trump victory,” said a senior American diplomat based in Europe, adding that the 2016 embassy events had been “calamitous.” “The decision to nix election night festivities may also reflect the unusually politicized nature of America’s diplomatic corps. There is deep unease about the strength of the U.S. democratic system after disputes about the outcome of the 2020 election led to an attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters,” says Politico.

With that as a scene-setter, Washington bureaucracy is preparing for war. Months before the election, in April 2024, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued new protective guidance to agencies as they implemented regulations strengthening “guard rails” on the conversion of career federal workers out of the civil service and into the excepted service. This refers to the infamous Schedule F planned by Trump as one of his Day One initiatives.

OPM’s regulations establish a definition of “policy-related” jobs, whittling it down to escape Trump’s campaign definition by referring only to noncareer political appointments, and stipulating when an employee’s position is “involuntarily” converted out of the Civil Service, they retain “the status and civil service protections they had already accrued,” which would render the new rules of Schedule F moot. OPM’s version also grants federal workers the right to appeal any job reclassifications resulting in the loss of civil service protections to the Merit Systems Protection Board, a creaky-slow agency which could tie up Trump’s changes for years, case-by-slogging-case.

But despite Biden’s OPM efforts to protect the federal workforce from any upcoming Schedule F changes, analysts say there may be little the bureaucracy can do to stop them. Even the April 2024 rule could easily be rescinded, either after a 90-day notice-and-comment period or immediately with a new interim final rule. Schedule F fights can be expected to get deep into the weeds of how the U.S. government system works (or doesn’t work) through its tangle of regulations and laws. Never mind snatching returning rockets from the air and self-driving cars, Elon Musk will have met the most complex challenge of his time. Give Elon a hand by delving into the dense OPM’s guidance on Schedule F yourself.

So what is Schedule F anyway? Though it failed to go into practice, in Term 1.0 Trump issued an executive order that would have stripped firing protections from many civil servants. This effort was labeled “Schedule F” because that is the name of the new employment category the executive order created (Schedules A–E already existed.) The administration created Schedule F based on language exempting positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character” from employment protections. Previous administrations and Congress always understood the language to apply only to a smaller number of positions traditionally filled by political appointees, Schedule C, not civil servants.

The civil service was once a good idea in theory to protect workers from politics and make sure the mail got sorted and the tariffs got collected. But fast forward to today and all sorts of employees, including many in organs like the National Security Council and the State Department, are now civil servants. Their protections against political interference have only grown stronger over the years, to the point where it is near impossible to fire one of them, even for cause. This leads to the legendary “lifetime jobs” most civil servants enjoy.

The problem is that some of those civil servants are in positions to oppose the president’s initiatives. They can block action relatively safely, protected as they are from being fired. This is what Trump wants to change in Term 2.0. He wants to be able to fire some of these servants at will. They will not go away easily. The terms are tough; Vivek has vowed to cut 75 percent of the federal workforce.

“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people,” Elon said.

Elon and Vivek are not fighting alone.

Some in Congress are already thinking ahead, anticipating the push-back from the affected civil servants. The Stop Resistance Activities by Federal Employees Act (STRAFE) would penalize federal employees if they obstruct a lawful order from administration officials. It requires agencies to report alleged violations to the White House every six months. Representative August Pfluger’s (R-Texas) Act directs OPM to craft new mandatory training for senior federal employees on the penalties imposed if they were to oppose, obstruct or impede directives from the president, vice president or any other political appointee.

“Career unelected bureaucrats cannot be allowed to undermine the agenda of any future president,” said Congressman Pfluger.”We must ensure that the network of federal employees that brazenly carried out resistance activities under the first Trump Administration is not unleashed again.” The STRAFE Act is designed to mitigate resistance within federal agencies, ensuring a more cooperative and compliant federal workforce.

STRAFE has four components: 1) training for federal employees clearly outlining prohibited activities intended to obstruct or undermine the directives of the sitting administration; 2) penalties, on par with Hatch Act violations, for federal employees who engage in resistance activities (civil penalties can reach $1,000); 3) an external complaint reporting process, bypassing the traditional Inspector General channels within agencies, to ensure a more transparent system and 4) periodic reports from each federal agency to the Executive Office of the President, providing updates on complaints and status of actions taken against those engaging in resistance activities.

Needless to say, civil service advocacy groups oppose the STRAFE Act, saying STRAFE and Schedule F are just veiled efforts to politicize the federal workforce.

“The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States is not the result our union was hoping for,” said Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. Matt Biggs, national president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers said “it feels different—in 2016, he was still something of an unknown. Now we have Trump’s first term anti-union executive orders and Schedule F on top of that, and we have Project 2025, the blueprint of exactly what they’re going to do. So it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out exactly what they have planned. As a union that represents federal employees, we have to prepare to defend our members.”

[…]

Via https://wemeantwell.com/blog/2024/11/26/trump-v-the-bureaucracy/

 

Czech Climate Conference Declares Climate Emergency Over

Watt’s Up with That

A two-day climate conference in Prague, organised by the Czech division of the international Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel), which took place on November 12-13 in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in Prague, “declares and affirms that the imagined and imaginary ‘climate emergency’ is at an end”.

The communiqué, drafted by the eminent scientists and researchers who spoke at the conference, makes clear that for several decades climate scientists have  systematically exaggerated the influence of CO2 on global temperature.

The high-level scientific conference also declared:

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which excludes participants and published papers disagreeing with its narrative, fails to comply with its own error-reporting protocol and draws conclusions some of which are dishonest, should be forthwith dismantled.”

The declaration supports the conclusions of the major Clintel report The Frozen Climate Views of the IPCC [presented to the Conference by Marcel Crok, Clintel’s co-founder].

Moreover, the scientists at the conference declared that even if all nations moved straight to net zero emissions, by the 2050 target date the world would be only about 0.1 C cooler than with no emissions reduction.

So far, the attempts to mitigate climate change by international agreements such as the Paris Agreement have made no difference to our influence on climate, since nations such as Russia and China, India and Pakistan continue greatly to expand their combustion of coal, oil and gas.

The cost of achieving that 0.1 C reduction in global warming would be $2 quadrillion, equivalent to 20 years’ worldwide gross domestic product.

Finally, the conference “calls upon the entire scientific community to cease and desist from its persecution of scientists and researchers who disagree with the current official narrative on climate change and instead to encourage once again the long and noble tradition of free, open and uncensored scientific research, investigation, publication and discussion”.

The full text of the communiqué follows:

The International Scientific Conference of the Climate Intelligence Group (Clintel), in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic in Prague assembled on the Twelfth and Thirteenth Days of November 2024, has resolved and now declares as follows, that is to say –

  1. The modest increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide that has taken place since the end of the Little Ice Age has been net-beneficial to humanity.
  2. Foreseeable future increases in greenhouse gases in the air will probably also prove net-beneficial.
  3. The rate and amplitude of global warming have been and will continue to be appreciably less than climate scientists have long predicted.
  4. The Sun, and not greenhouse gases, has contributed and will continue to contribute the overwhelming majority of global temperature.
  5. Geological evidence compellingly suggests that the rate and amplitude of global warming during the industrial era are neither unprecedented nor unusual.
  6. Climate models are inherently incapable of telling us anything about how much global warming there will be or about whether or to what extent the warming has a natural or anthropogenic cause.
  7. Global warming will likely continue to be slow, small, harmless and net-beneficial.
  8. There is broad agreement among the scientific community that extreme weather events have not increased in frequency, intensity or duration and are in future unlikely to do so.
  9. Though global population has increased fourfold over the past century, annually averaged deaths attributable to any climate-related or weather-related event have declined by 99%.
  10. Global climate-related financial losses, expressed as a percentage of global annual gross domestic product, have declined and continue to decline notwithstanding the increase in built infrastructure in harm’s way.
  11. Despite trillions of dollars spent chiefly in Western countries on emissions abatement, global temperature has continued to rise since 1990.
  12. Even if all nations, rather than chiefly western nations, were to move directly and together from the current trajectory to net zero emissions by the official target year of 2050, the global warming prevented by that year would be no more than 0.05 to 0.1 Celsius.
  13. If the Czech Republic, the host of this conference, were to move directly to net zero emissions by 2050, it would prevent only 1/4000 of a degree of warming by that target date.
  14. Based pro rata on the estimate by the UK national grid authority that preparing the grid for net zero would cost $3.8 trillion (the only such estimate that is properly-costed), and on the fact that the grid accounts for 25% of UK emissions, and that UK emissions account for 0.8% of global emissions, the global cost of attaining net zero would approach $2 quadrillion, equivalent to 20 years’ global annual GDP.
  15. On any grid where the installed nameplate capacity of wind and solar power exceeds the mean demand on that grid, adding any further wind or solar power will barely reduce grid CO2 emissions but will greatly increase the cost of electricity and yet will reduce the revenues earned by both new and existing wind and solar generators.
  16. The resources of techno-metals required to achieve global net zero emissions are entirely insufficient even for one 15-year generation of net zero infrastructure, so that net zero is in practice unattainable.
  17. Since wind and solar power are costly, intermittent and more environmentally destructive per TWh generated than any other energy source, governments should cease to subsidize or to prioritize them, and should instead expand coal, gas and, above, all nuclear generation.
  18. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which excludes participants and published papers disagreeing with its narrative, fails to comply with its own error-reporting protocol and draws conclusions some of which are dishonest, should be forthwith dismantled.

Therefore, this conference hereby declares and affirms that the imagined and imaginary “climate emergency” is at an end.

This conference calls upon the entire scientific community to cease and desist from its persecution of scientists and researchers who disagree with the current official narrative on climate change and instead to encourage once again the long and noble tradition of free, open and uncensored scientific research, investigation, publication and discussion.

Given under our signs manual this Thirteenth Day of November in the Year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-Four.

Pavel Kalenda, Czech Republic [Conference Chairman]

Guus Berkhout, The Netherlands [Co-founder, Clintel]

Marcel Crok, The Netherlands [Co-founder, Clintel]

Lord Monckton, United Kingdom

Valentina Zharkova, United Kingdom

Milan Šálek, Czech Republic

Václav Procházka, Czech Republic

Gregory Wrightstone, United States

Jan Pokorný, Czech Republic

Szarka László, Hungary

James Croll, United Kingdom

Tomas Furst, Czech Republic

Gerald Ratzer, Canada

Douglas Pollock, Chile

Henri Masson, Belgium

Miroslav Žáček, Czech Republic

Jan-Erik Solheim, Norway

[…]

Via https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/19/climate-scientists-officially-declare-climate-emergency-at-an-end/

The Caucasian Languages

https://cdn.britannica.com/60/7160-004-05F511A0/Distribution-languages-Caucasian.jpg

Episode 12 The Caucasian Languages

Language Families of the World

Dr John McWhorter

Film Review

The Roman Historian Pliny the Elder and the Greek navigator Timosthenes were the first to write about the Caucasus region in Eastern Europe. It was a popular tourist destination for wealthy Roman families.

According to McWhorter, the Caucasus is home to three or four dozen different languages belonging to three different language families.

  • Northwestern Caucasian (includes the Kabardean and Abknaz languages)
  • Northeastern Caucaian (includes Lezgian, Tsez, Archi and Avar languages)
  • Southern Caucasian (with Georgian the best example)

The term “Caucasoid” (as an archaic racial classification) originated with the work of Friedrich Blumenbach, who identified a Georgian skull as “Caucasoid” to distinguish it from “African” or “Mongoloid.”

McWhorter asserts that the multiplicity of Caucasian languages relates mainly to high mountain ranges that isolated language groups. In general languages spoken at high altitudes are always more complicated. It’s typical for invading tribes to chase indigenous groups into the mountains, where they remain isolated. In contrast, languages spoken in lowland villages tend to become simplified when invaders learn them as a second language.

In any case all Caucasian languages remained extremely complicated because few outsiders wanted or needed to learn them. Northwest Caucasian languages have nouns with extremely complicated case markings, Northeast Caucasian languages have extremely complex verb endings and South Caucasian languages are full of prefixes, suffixes and infixes that subtly alter the meaning of words.

Inguish, a Northeast Caucasian language, has six genders, 1 1/2 vowels (“a” and a schwa sound), and ejective  consonants. According to McWhorter, ejective consonants are common at high altitudes (also found in the Andes, and Ethiopian mountains) because it’s easier to compress air when it’s thinner.


*An ejective consonant is an unvoiced consonant associated with a click in the back of the mouth. Increasingly some English speakers make this clicking sound when “k” occurs at the end of the word.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/6120000/6120026

High Linoleic Acid Intake During Pregnancy May Harm Fetal Growth and Raise Obesity Risk

Dr Joseph Mercola

Story at-a-glance

  • High linoleic acid (LA) intake during pregnancy may harm fetal growth and increase obesity risk in children. LA is found in seed oils and processed foods, with consumption increasing significantly in recent decades
  • Excessive LA interferes with the production of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, disrupting the balance needed for optimal fetal development and triggering increased inflammation during pregnancy
  • High maternal LA intake is associated with altered birth weight, increased risk of childhood obesity and long-term health consequences, including metabolic diseases and brain development issues
  • Animal studies show that high-LA diets during pregnancy negatively impact offspring’s brain composition, endocannabinoid system, kidney development and liver function, with some effects being more pronounced in males
  • To optimize cellular energy and support a healthy pregnancy, it’s recommended to reduce LA intake below 5 grams daily by avoiding seed oils and processed foods, and limiting consumption of chicken and pork

If you’re pregnant or planning to become pregnant, you might want to take a closer look at your diet, particularly your intake of linoleic acid (LA). Consuming too much of this omega-6 fatty acid during pregnancy could have negative effects on your baby’s growth and long-term health, according to research published in Nutrients.1

LA is found in seed oils, processed foods and even some seemingly healthy options like chicken, nuts and seeds. While it’s believed to be an essential fatty acid that your body needs, the modern Western diet typically provides far more than necessary. It is virtually impossible to not receive the necessary amount of 500 mg in any diet that includes food, making it questionable at best if it is indeed an essential fat.

Over the past few decades, LA consumption has skyrocketed from about 2% of daily energy intake, or about 2 to 4 grams a day, to 7%, or 19 grams daily.2 This dramatic increase is causing unintended consequences for pregnant women and their developing babies. Remember you likely only need 500 mg (one half of one gram) to meet your requirements.

The Delicate Balance of Fatty Acids in Fetal Development

Your body uses linoleic acid and its omega-3 counterpart, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), to produce longer-chain fatty acids crucial for fetal development. These include arachidonic acid (AA) from LA, and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from ALA. These fatty acids play vital roles in brain and retinal development, cell membrane formation and overall growth.

However, LA and ALA compete for the same enzymes in this conversion process. When you consume too much LA, it interferes with the production of beneficial EPA and DHA from ALA. The optimal ratio of LA to ALA in your diet should be around 1:1 or 2:1. Unfortunately, the current excess of LA in many diets has pushed this ratio to as high as 20:1,3 disrupting the delicate balance needed for optimal fetal development.

Inflammation and Fetal Growth: The LA Connection

High levels of LA in your diet during pregnancy may trigger increased inflammation, negatively impacting fetal growth. When your body metabolizes LA, it produces AA and other proinflammatory compounds like prostaglandins, leukotrienes and thromboxane. These substances increase levels of inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and C-reactive proteins.4

Chronic inflammation during pregnancy has been linked to various adverse outcomes, including premature labor, intrauterine growth restriction and low birth weight. Animal studies have shown that a high-LA diet increases the production of these inflammatory compounds in pregnant mothers. These findings suggest that excessive LA intake creates an inflammatory environment that’s harmful for your developing baby.5

LA intake during pregnancy may also have a significant influence on the baby’s birth weight and length — two important indicators of long-term health. Interestingly, the relationship between LA and birth weight isn’t straightforward.

Some studies have found an inverted U-shaped correlation, where both low (<4% of energy) and high (>8% of energy) LA intakes were associated with lower birth weights. Other research has shown that high maternal LA intake in early pregnancy is linked to decreased birth weight and higher rates of small-for-gestational-age babies.

Long-Term Consequences: Childhood Obesity and Metabolic Diseases

The effects of high maternal LA intake don’t stop at birth — they may extend well into the child’s future.6 Studies have shown that children born to mothers who consumed high levels of LA during pregnancy have an increased risk of obesity by age 7.7

This heightened risk of childhood obesity is concerning because it sets the stage for various chronic diseases later in life, including high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, chronic inflammation, hyperinsulinemia and endothelial dysfunction. Animal studies support these findings, showing that offspring of mothers fed high-LA diets during pregnancy had higher body weights at weaning and increased fat deposition.8

The mechanisms behind these long-term effects are still being investigated, but they likely involve changes in gene expression, alterations in fat metabolism and disruptions to the endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in regulating appetite and metabolism.

How Too Much Linoleic Acid During Pregnancy Harms Baby’s Brain

A separate animal study also uncovered concerning effects of consuming too much LA during pregnancy and early life.9 Australian researchers found that high maternal LA intake altered the fatty acid composition and plasmalogen levels in offspring brains, with more pronounced changes in males. Plasmalogens are a class of lipids vital for brain cell protection and function.

The researchers observed increased levels of inflammatory mediators like arachidonic acid in the brains of male offspring exposed to high-LA diets. Additionally, they found decreased ratios of DHA to n-6 docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) in both male and female offspring brains when fed high-LA diets after birth.

DHA is crucial for optimal brain development, while elevated n-6 DPA has been linked to learning and memory deficits. These findings suggest that excessive LA consumption during pregnancy and early life negatively impacts neurodevelopment, particularly in male offspring.

Intriguingly, the study revealed sex-specific effects of high-LA diets on offspring brain composition. Male offspring showed greater diversity in brain fatty acid concentrations compared to females when exposed to elevated LA levels. This suggests that the developing male brain may be more susceptible to the effects of high-LA intake.

High-LA Diet Led to Endocannabinoid System Disruption and Hormonal Changes

Consumption of high-LA diets during pregnancy and early life also impact children’s endocannabinoid system, which is crucial for early brain development. The study found that several endocannabinoids and related compounds, including anandamide (AEA), 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and AA, were significantly elevated in offspring exposed to postnatal high-LA diets.10

Male offspring showed more pronounced changes in endocannabinoid levels compared to females, further emphasizing the sex-specific nature of LA’s effects. Additionally, the research revealed that high-LA diets significantly increased testosterone levels in male offspring. These alterations in endocannabinoid signaling and hormone levels could have far-reaching consequences for brain function, behavior and overall health.

The endocannabinoid system plays vital roles in neurotransmitter regulation, synaptic plasticity and various cognitive processes, making these findings particularly concerning for long-term brain health and development.11

Maternal High Linoleic Acid Diet Disrupts Kidney Development

Diet during pregnancy doesn’t just affect the baby’s brain — it also impacts kidney development. Recent research on rats has shown that a maternal diet high in LA alters the expression of genes crucial for kidney formation in embryonic offspring.12 Specifically, the study found decreased expression of Ret and Gdnf, genes responsible for branching morphogenesis — a critical process in early kidney development.

This reduction could lead to decreased nephron formation, which is essential for proper kidney function. The study also noted that these genetic alterations occurred despite no changes in kidney weight at the embryonic stage, highlighting the importance of looking beyond organ size when assessing developmental impacts.

The findings raise concerns about the long-term consequences of excessive LA consumption during pregnancy, as reduced nephron endowment in humans has been linked to an increased risk of various diseases in adulthood.13

Further, high linoleic acid intake during pregnancy could disrupt important cellular signaling pathways in the baby’s developing kidneys. The study revealed that offspring from mothers consuming a high-LA diet showed decreased expression of mTOR, Akt3 and Prkab2 — key components of the megalin signaling pathway.

[…]

These alterations in cellular signaling could have far-reaching consequences for kidney function and overall health. Importantly, these changes were observed at the embryonic stage, which means the maternal diet’s impact on fetal kidney development begins very early in pregnancy.15 The effects of excessive LA intake during pregnancy extend to other organ systems as well.

High-LA Diet During Pregnancy Alters Offspring Liver Function

A mother’s diet during pregnancy also has lasting impacts on her child’s liver function. Research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences shows that consuming high levels of LA while pregnant may alter lipid metabolism in offspring, setting them up for liver issues later in life.16

In this study, researchers fed pregnant rats either a low-LA diet (1.44% of calories from LA) or a high-LA diet (6.21% of calories from LA) to mimic typical Western consumption levels. They then examined the effects on the adolescent offspring’s liver health and function.

The results revealed concerning changes in cholesterol storage, fatty acid handling and expression of key genes involved in lipid metabolism. In other words, a mother’s high intake of vegetable oils and other LA-rich foods during pregnancy could negatively impact her child’s liver development and function.17

Male and female offspring were affected differently by their mother’s high-LA intake. In male offspring, maternal high LA decreased liver cholesterol levels and increased expression of PPARγ, a gene involved in fatty acid storage. For female offspring, maternal high LA increased expression of genes involved in cholesterol synthesis.

The changes observed could increase risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or other metabolic issues later in life, especially when combined with a poor diet in adulthood.18 While this study was in rats, it raises important questions about how maternal diet may be impacting human liver development and long-term health outcomes.

An additional concerning finding was that the mother’s high-LA intake increased blood levels of uric acid in male offspring. There was also an interaction effect on uric acid levels in females. While the levels were still within normal physiological range, elevated uric acid is associated with a range of health issues including kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.19

Uric acid activates the immune system and alters kidney cell function, promoting inflammation and tissue damage. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that consuming high levels of seed oils rich in linoleic acid during pregnancy may have unintended negative consequences for offspring health across multiple organ systems.

Optimizing Your Cellular Energy Is Key for a Healthy Pregnancy

Research continues to build showing that excessive LA intake during pregnancy puts your future children at risk. Scientists explained in Current Medicinal Chemistry that high intake of foods rich in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), like LA, are “transformed into inflammatory metabolites promoting the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and autoimmune or inflammatory conditions.”20 Further:21

“An elevated intake of n-6 PUFA, specifically LA, during pregnancy [negatively] influences children’s motor, cognitive, and verbal development during infancy and early childhood. Similarly, they could harm the placenta and the development of other fetal organs such as the fat tissue, liver, and cardiovascular system …”

A growing fetus requires lots of energy, so supporting cellular energy production is key to a healthy pregnancy and ensuring future generations are full of vitality. Optimizing your mitochondrial function is crucial for improving your cellular energy, but LA is a mitochondrial poison. To optimize your mitochondrial function, reduce consumption of LA as much as possible.

I recommend keeping your intake below 5 grams a day. To achieve this, it’s best to eliminate seed oils and even fruit-based oils like olive or avocado from your diet, as these are often mixed with less expensive seed oils. Instead, use ghee, butter or beef tallow for cooking. Stay away from ultraprocessed foods, which typically contain high amounts of seed oils.

[…]

Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/11/27/linoleic-acid-pregnancy.aspx

ATACMS Fired by Ukraine at Targets in Russia Likely Manufactured in 1990s

Remnants of US ATACMS Missiles - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.11.2024

Sputnik – 26.11.2024

MOSCOW – The ATACMS missiles used by Ukraine against targets in Russia’s Kursk Region were most likely originally produced in the 1990s and had been modified at least twice to extend their lifespan.

This is according to a Sputnik correspondent’s analysis of the photos of the destroyed missile parts released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine fired five ATACMS missiles on the S-400 division in the Kursk Region — three missiles were intercepted and two reached the target, injuring a number of service personnel.

In addition, seven ATACMS missiles have been destroyed and one reached the target in Ukraine’s strike on the Vostochny airfield also in the Kursk Region, where two soldiers have been wounded by falling missile fragments.

The photos released by the Russian Defense Ministry showed that the ATACMS missiles were produced by “Lockheed Martin Vought Systems,” which is the name the US defense contractor used until 1999, according to annual budget reports of the US Army.

From the year 2000, the US defense contractor changed its name to “Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control,” the budget report of the US Army released in 2000 showed.

The name of the manufacturer on the ATACMS missiles fired by Ukraine indicated that the weapons were most likely originally produced in the late 1990s, when the US Army began to procure such missiles in large quantities.

The ATACMS missiles have a service life of 10 years and would require about $1 million per unit to reset its service life, according to previous US Army budget reports.

[…]

Via https://sputnikglobe.com/20241126/atacms-fired-by-ukraine-at-targets-in-russia-likely-manufactured-in-1990s-1121011333.html

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Picked For NIH Chief as Free Speech Takes Center Stage in Science

With a decision that has garnered the attention of both supporters and skeptics of America’s public health establishment, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. For a nation battered by years of pandemic policies, conflicting narratives, and public mistrust, there’s more to this nomination— it’s a declaration.

Dr. Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor and a leading voice in health policy, has been a consistent advocate for evidence-based decision-making and open scientific discourse. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he gained national attention for his principled stance against lockdowns and sweeping mandates, which he argued caused more harm than good. Now, he’s poised to bring that same conviction to one of the most influential scientific institutions in the world.

Rather than being welcomed as a critical voice, Bhattacharya faced vilification from a system allergic to dissent.

Fighting for Free Speech in Science

Perhaps Bhattacharya’s most defining moment came when he fought back against censorship. The Stanford professor became a plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of colluding with Big Tech to silence dissenting voices on public health.

The suppression of ideas, Bhattacharya argued, isn’t just an affront to the First Amendment; it’s antithetical to the scientific method. By standing up, he wasn’t just defending his views but ensuring that future debates about public health policy could happen in the open, where they belong.

A New Era for the NIH

With his appointment as NIH director, Bhattacharya is stepping into a role that carries enormous responsibility. But for a man who has spent his career challenging conventional wisdom, this is an opportunity to turn the page on a period of public disillusionment with science.

In an X post following the announcement, Bhattacharya, who was once blacklisted from Twitter under the old regime, promised to reform America’s scientific institutions to make them “worthy of trust again” and to ensure that NIH-funded research would focus on improving health outcomes for all Americans.

Jay Bhattacharya announces his nomination as the next NIH director by Donald Trump, expressing honor and intent to reform American scientific institutions.

President Trump underscored this vision, calling Bhattacharya a leader who will restore the NIH to its “Gold Standard” while addressing America’s greatest health challenges. Paired with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., another advocate for reform, Bhattacharya is set to tackle systemic issues such as chronic illness, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the erosion of public trust in science.

[…]

Via https://reclaimthenet.org/dr-jay-bhattacharya-picked-for-nih-chief-as-free-speech-takes-center-stage-in-science

Harris Campaign Advisor David Plouffe Accidently Exposes How Legacy Media Lied to Americans With Junk Polls

David Plouffe on Pod Save America./VIdeo screenshot.

Margaret Flavin

There have been extensive postmortems on Kamala Harris’s failed campaign and the absolute drubbing she received from Donald Trump.

Democrat strategist James Carville said the moment he knew the campaign was doomed was when ‘The View’ co-host Sunny Hostin asked Harris, “If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

Kamala answered, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

But legacy media keep gaslighting voters with polls showing Harris neck and neck with Trump and even leading in some surprising places.

Recently, Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe sat down with fellow Harris campaign alums Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks, and Stephanie Cutter on Pod Save America to discuss what went wrong.

The junk polls pushed by the legacy media were an overt gesture to help Democrats and influence the mindset of the electorate.  Case in point:  Ann Selzer’s shocking poll suggesting that Kamala Harris was leading Donald Trump in Iowa by 3 percent.

Leftwing outlets used the Iowa poll constantly in an attempt to embolden Harris supporters and suppress Trump supporters.

Selzer’s poll was precisely as it appeared: junk. Ultimately, Selzer was 16 points off. President Trump won the state of Iowa by +13.

Despite all the polls legacy media used to gaslight Americans, Plouffe admitted during the podcast that the campaign’s internal polling never actually had Harris ahead of Trump.

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” he said.

“I think it surprised people, because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

The Harris campaign knew what was likely coming on election day.  Legacy media knew.  If they were actually journalists rather than the unpaid marketing wing of the DNC, they would have reported the facts.  But their motivation to shill for leftists outweighs their desire to deliver the truth.

Watch:

Here’s where Kamala Harris advisor David Plouffe admits internal polling never showed Kamala Harris ahead of Trump in battleground states — even after spending $1 billion pic.twitter.com/AVnH2kfll7

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) November 27, 2024

You can watch the entire episode here:

David Plouffe initially deleted his account, likely so he didn’t have to answer public questions about the FAKE data he was peddling to media in the final week, which unsurprisingly, they didn’t even bother to confirm, but then the account reappears and now he is admitting on… pic.twitter.com/rsNC7a7qhE

— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) November 27, 2024

[…]

Via https://theblogginghounds.com/2024/11/27/harris-campaign-advisor-david-plouffe-accidently-exposes-how-legacy-media-lied-to-the-american-people-with-junk-polls/