Bob in Mich

The Sharpie Gate story is fading into the distance. For an issue that was relatively insignificant, the Trump administration pressured a public facing government institution (NOAA) to bend the truth for the benefit of the President. Clearly Dishonest Don was at it again but, was it even newsworthy in the first place? We already know Trump has ego issues and that he has great difficulty admitting when he is wrong...nothing new here. Trump is banking on his 'booming economy' to propel his 2020 re-election bid. If our economy falters prior to the election, he may not win those key mid-western states that carried him in 2016. Those monthly jobs, wage, and unemployment statistics come from our government agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If the administration would pressure an agency such as NOAA to lie to the public for Trump over a minor ego issue, I gotta believe that they will try (or already have tried) to pressure government agencies such as the BLS into lies that will make the economy look better than it actually is in order to get Trump re-elected.

So you are OK with taxpayers providing salaries to these 'representatives', funding their healthcare for the rest of their lives, and providing them a generous pension when they in fact are working for the interests of their donors and not, generally speaking, for you and I, their constituents? I am not OK with that. It might be wise to consider that there may come an issue where you are not in agreement with the big donors. You can see that, right? Or, are you one of those idiots you referenced?

Too bad so few of 'the American people' have representation in Congress any more, eh?

A little more information on this issue https://www.leafly.com/news/health/vape-pen-lung-disease-advice-consumers from the article Health officials have confirmed that among the tainted carts are ones with the brand names Chronic Carts, Dank Vapes, and West Coast Carts, but the condition is linked to multiple illicit market brands across multiple states.

I have recently seen several news reports about lung damage from vaping. This is as serious as it gets as several people have perished from lung damage. I am not a medical professional and essentially am only reporting what I have read. Initially I heard vape cartridge 'oil thickeners' might be to blame. Just now I heard that a vitamin E oil additive might be the culprit. Buyer beware!!!! Please be careful if you are buying product from black/grey market sources. Be careful what you are ingesting!!

There are concerns when using cannabis with a particular cancer treatment plan. If you know folks getting immunotherapy to treat their cancer, they should be aware of possible interaction with cannabis treatments. https://www.leafly.com/news/health/when-cannabis-may-complicate-cancer-treatment From the article... While research into the topic is still scant, studies such as the retrospective paper mentioned above have turned up concerning findings: Patients who did not receive cannabis were 3.17 times more likely to respond to immunotherapy. The study analyzed data from the medical charts of 140 patients. The patients reviewed had been diagnosed with three types of cancer: melanoma, non-small-cell lung cancer, and renal cell carcinoma. All underwent treatment with Nivolumab, a common immunotherapy drug. Eighty-nine patients received Nivolumab, while 51 patients received Nivolumab in conjunction with medical cannabis. The second group, who received medical cannabis, experienced lower response rates to immunotherapy (37.5% vs. 15.9%). Patients with renal cell carcinoma and melanoma showed a particularly pronounced disparity: 40.6% of patients who received Nivolumab alone responded to the treatment, in contrast to 10% of patients who received cannabis and Nivolumab. The route, dose, and formula of cannabis did not appear to impact the response rate. Statistical analysis reveals that cannabis was the only significant factor which could have reduced the response rate to immunotherapy. However, the study also unveiled some fascinating quirks. While the response rate to immunotherapy was affected by cannabis use, other measures such as progression-free survival and overall survival were not—progression-free survival refers to the length of time during and after treatment that a patient lives with the disease without it worsening; overall survival is the length of time a patient stays alive from the date of diagnosis or commencement of treatment.

Duke may yet have a role coming off the PS. I just thought he would pass through waivers because he wasn't really a big name and he hadn't flashed a whole lot in preseason, even recalling his 2 TD catches. There were over 1100 NFL players released yesterday, including 'name' players and nearly every GM agonized over their own last few cuts. Anyway, he is now on our practice squad. Hopefully he becomes one of our future success stories.

A big problem is that many have begun demanding that our politicians essentially be entertainers too. Maybe there are just too many interviews and videos to expect anyone to be constantly flawless. We don't really need a professional TV personality/entertainer like Don Rickles or Rodney Dangerfield as president. We have many other places to get our entertainment. In a president, I think we need a whole host of typically named leadership qualities - vision, ability to unite, strong but empathetic, honest, intelligent but surrounded by experienced advisors, etc, etc. Notice that 'entertainer-in-chief' is not in that list of required qualities. Can you imagine anyone winning an on-stage insult contest with Rickles? Not happening, right? So, if we look at at political debates for insult entertainment rather than for policy vision and leadership qualities, will that perspective help us pick the best leader? I certainly am not sold on Biden and as an independent I will not vote in the primaries anyway. I will have to see who survives to Nov 2020 but please keep in mind that the wittiest, fastest talker, or best insult comic may be entertaining to watch on TV but he/she may not make the best leader.

This 13 minute video isn't strictly about lying though lying is part of the personality pattern discussed. This is an 'understanding your partner' type of video but it has amazing parallels to my/our relationship with someone in today's news. Start watching it for at least a few minutes and see if this shoe fits someone you know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp225WfKBNg One very large problem is that an individual with this type of personality can be easily manipulated, as we can see being done regularly by several foreign leaders around the world. Once the pattern is recognized and confirmed in a relationship, the recommendation for a healthy course is to distance oneself from this type of individual. The problem is that about 40% of our country seems to have become explainers and enablers for this guy.

There are something like 1,100 NFL players cut today. I too think we tend to over value some of our own talent without necessarily knowing all of the talent being released elsewhere.

We all know the New England model works because of Brady much more so than the committee of RBs. I am hopeful Josh progresses but right now we don't have the key piece here to make the Patriots model work.

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Put on your Fox News secret goggles. That is the only way one can see it

Just admit you are being completely inconsistent. You defend Trump's lies as harmless but claim the lies of others are serious. Get off your high horse and take a look at your own ridiculous position.

Hi Bob. You missed the video apparently. It is Chris Cuomo of CNN that calls out Trump's enablers, not the Governor of NY Cuomo. Go back a page in this thread and watch the 5 minute Chris Cuomo video please.

So,(paraphrasing) you are saying that every Trump lie Cuomo points out is accurate and so he is being truthful yet still not to be believed. You are getting yourself a bit contorted now. That can happen easily when defending inconsistent positions. There are literally thousands of Trump lies to choose from. If you don''t know that, please do a few google searches on the number of lies he has told since his ride down the escalator. A better question is why post them to a group that will insult the poster, excuse the lie, and defend the liar, regardless of facts?

Keep attacking those pointing out the truth - some people may not have recognized your tact yet. What does Cuomo say in this video that is not the truth? Which of Trump's noted fabrications are false? Please be specific. Or, are you as blind as Kayleigh? Do you think Trump lies significantly more than any prior president or not? Assuming you aren't as blind, why do you put up with it? Why are the lies OK with you when you claim to abhor dishonesty? You realize that the only people that can ever get him to be more honest are his most rabid supporters, such as you have become. But, if his supporters continue to enable and to excuse each lie, we all will get more lies from Trump and his team. You claim to have standards for truth. Where does that integrity go when you evaluate Trump's behavior? Perhaps you should refresh your memory and look up the word integrity. Seems you got confused somewhere along the line defending Trump during the Russia investigation and misplaced yours. Or, I could be convinced you never had much to begin with.

Attacking the people exposing the truth, as predicted. Thanks for so adeptly making Cuomo's point. For once, I appreciate your response. Perfect enabling.

Chris Cuomo of CNN makes some good points about Trump's lying and as importantly, his enablers. I know how revered CNN is here but check out the video clip anyway. It is about 5 minutes long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFGgSQb7Os

That's right Jim. Gold star for you today. CBD and THC both have significant medicinal value individually as well as working in concert with other cannabinoids in what is referred to as the 'entourage effect' to treat other illnesses. CBD and THC and about 150 other compounds called cannabinoids are found in varying concentrations in both marijuana and in hemp. Hemp and marijuana are the same plant but our government has decided that if the THC concentration is low enough, we'll call it hemp and we will now allow American farmers to grow it. With processing, these cannabinoids can be extracted from the plant matter. A 'full plant extract' will strip the plant flowers and (sometimes) leaves of whatever cannabinoids that particular strain contains. A strain high in CBD will produce a full plant extract high in CBD and similarly a high THC strain of cannabis will result in an extract high in THC. Another way to process the plant involves extraction and distillation to achieve greater purity of a specific cannabinoid, like a CBD or THC. Distillates will often claim purity of over 95%. If I recall, pure THC and CBD are both crystalline. See the link below for more detail on extraction methods. For money, disreputable salesmen (growers, dispensary owners, or processors) will often make claims that are untrue in order to sell their products. Before the CBD craze, THC concentrations were inflated or average cannabis strains were mislabeled as particularly popular strains in order to increase sales/profits. With CBD being quasi-legal now, disreputables are claiming high plant CBD concentrations and again mislabeling strains in order to increase sales. Really, third party testing is about the only way to ensure quality but with variances from crop to crop, even that is not totally foolproof. As with most other medical uses of cannabis, due to insufficient research, one must experiment a bit to find something that works for them. https://www.cbdoil.org/cbd-extraction-methods/

Stephen Colbert had a short bit on other products being marketed for the shower. Start at 2:20 mark if short on time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGag1sjCpp0

Not trolling at all. It was a great post or said another way, an astute observation. Just bumping it in case any folks had missed it.

great post! bump

Glad to hear you have recovered from your health scare. Hopefully you will be around for many years. We are around the same age. One to one health comparisons don't mean much but since we are apparently bragging here.... About a decade ago my spinal problems started. Until that time I had been active and relatively healthy. With injury I started taking a fistful of pills daily including multiple vicodins, gabapentins, muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety meds, and a couple of scripts for related gastric issues. I began and still get periodic spinal injections at a pain management clinic Once I switched to medical cannabis concentrates, gradually I have left most all of those prescriptions behind. Aside from a nightly cannabis concentrate capsule, I probably take less than 5 pills a month. If I do something foolish and have breakthrough pain I resort to the pills, otherwise cannabis and the concentrate capsules are enough to allow me to function. I have no history of stroke or heart problems. I am maybe 10 lbs overweight, but at my physical recently my doctor actually congratulated me for being in such good shape. I am sure there are doubts about that, but it is true. My blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar are all normal, without meds. Also, according to my doc, my kidney and liver function as well as my testosterone levels have all improved since I switched my primary pain medicine to cannabis.

Sheesh, that's some gratitude for ya! You post about your mistress's foolishness regarding cannabis intake and then go out of your way to criticize my attempt to help you two? On top of that, I even inquired about your bouts with psychosis. I hear that can hang on sometimes for a week or more. All though, not good enough for Jimmy. Still he has to lash out at anyone trying to help him. Sad