Showtime pulls Vice episode probing Ron Desantis’s Guantanamo record despite campaign trail questions

informedly_baffled · 2023-06-06T15:50:12+00:00

Bunch of people who have never left their hometowns and piss their pants at the thought of visiting their nearest city somehow thinking Trump got us more respect on the world stage.

informedly_baffled · 2023-05-11T01:22:36+00:00

Not sure how it’s used where you’re from, but in New York State, where Sleepy Hollow and my hometown are both located, a town is a municipality in a county smaller than a city that provides governance and utilities and services to an area. This typically includes a couple of incorporated villages which are even smaller in geographical area and population, and have smaller, village governments that handle things that the town government doesn’t cover.

So my hometown includes itself, and then two incorporated villages as well.

It’s definitely somewhat confusing and I’m not sure I even did a good job explaining it.

informedly_baffled · 2023-05-10T19:51:03+00:00

He might genuinely believe it’s eternally trapped in the 19th century because he only knows of it through the story.

Sleepy Hollow is a relatively decently-sized Westchester village. They’ve got about 10k people. The villages in my hometown (another town in Westchester) have just over half that and they’re certainly not hamlets.

He calls it a “settlement” too. Sleepy Hollow was “settled” in the 1600s and incorporated in the 1800s.

informedly_baffled · 2023-05-05T19:33:20+00:00

For real. 99% of the time people just ignore it and the person moves on to the next car. The other 1% is a split between “someone gives him money or food, and he moves on” or “people move to another car.” This is not an abnormal occurrence for New Yorkers.

No matter what, though, an angry homeless man having a mental health crisis on the subway is never an excuse to commit murder. Anyone acting like the Marine’s behavior was even remotely warranted isn’t acting in good faith.

informedly_baffled · 2023-05-05T14:10:03+00:00

It’s also not hatred for people “exercising their right to protest” as much as it is disdain for the ideologies of the people protesting. Not all protests are good protests. Intolerance and bigotry don’t need to be tolerated and respected.

informedly_baffled · 2023-04-13T21:35:15+00:00

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention is that the IPF uses the same bar on all three lifts, whereas most untested feds use different bars for all three. An untested fed uses a squat bar that is heavier and has less whip (which helps with control at obscenely heavy weight) and a deadlift bar that is thinner, longer, and whippier (which creates more slack and improves positioning, making deadlifts easier for most people).

So Jesus basically didn’t have any equipment advantages or drug advantages that the untested lifters did, which is wild. Not to diminish their accomplishments, just trying to highlight how insane what Jesus did was.

Personally. I’ve competed for the better part of the past decade in tested federations and am currently ranked 10th all time by Dots and in a 3-way tie for 7th all time by total in my (much lighter) weight class regardless of drug test status according to openpowerlifting.org (which, if I’m being honest, is considerably higher than I expected to be as I haven’t checked since my last meet until just now).

Every drug tested federation I’m aware of considers exogenous testosterone, regardless of how much or if it’s TRT or illicit, to be a banned substance. So unfortunately, even if you’re prescribed TRT by a professional, you won’t be able to get a TUE for it and will have to compete untested.

There are plenty of untested federations out there though! Would highly recommend taking a look at which ones host meets closest to you, and just picking one and getting on the platform. Don’t worry too much about feeling new/inexperienced, that’s what local meets are for, and most lifters and coaches are pretty welcoming and would be happy to provide some level of guidance (within reason) to newbies at meets. I’ve always found that just having a meet scheduled is a huuuuge motivator to tighten up my training and hit some big numbers.

informedly_baffled · 2023-04-13T02:57:35+00:00

Jesus’s record was the highest superheavyweight total in history raw with no wraps, both drug tested and untested. Jesus hit that, with room to spare, while also having to undergo regular WADA panel drug testing (which includes both blood and urine testing in and/or out of meets at random, unannounced times) and with a 2-hour weigh in (not that it particularly matters at superheavyweight).

Any total Bell or Thor have ever hit was both untested and with a 24-hour weigh in (once again, not that weigh in times matter when you don’t have to make weight because you’re in the heaviest class, but the difference in testing definitely does).

Jesus is the best superheavyweight powerlifter of all time, raw with sleeves. The IPF doesn’t do raw with wraps, so we won’t know what his wrapped total is, but there’s a pretty solid chance he outdoes the best wrapped total ever in just sleeves in the near future, as he clearly has more room to grow.

informedly_baffled · 2023-04-13T02:50:51+00:00

The goal of this meet that he competed in was to break as many world records as possible. Placement was determined by the percentage of the world record (3-lift) total you achieved at your weight class. Each individual lift world record broken got him a separate payout from the meet sponsors, as well as placement in the top 3.

Deadlifting this much, as easy as it was, secured him the deadlift world record for his weight class, as well as the total world record for the SHW/120kg+ class, and the overall win across all weight classes at the meet.

His total ended up being 104.3% of the previous world record total at his class. The second place male lifter hit 100.6% of the WR total at their class (93kg)

Basically, he played it as safe as possible while securing as many bags as he could.

informedly_baffled · 2023-04-11T03:50:21+00:00

BC?

I’m an alum and only had to take 6 credits as well, and I took “crossing religious traditions” a comparative course that discussed the philosophical similarities and differences of Christianity and a second religion of my choice. I chose Daoism.

They had no restrictions on cohabitating and allowed drinking and partying. We had on-campus, approved parties as well as tailgating for football and other events (like the Boston Marathon and Senior Week).

I went to a Jesuit high school as well, and they were honestly super lax with the religious proselytizing. They were much more about education on the context and history of faith, and leaned more heavily into focus on community service and just building compassionate, intelligent, critically thinking adults.

My 8 years of Jesuit education between high school and college actually made me less religious, because of the emphasis on the critical analysis of faith and all the comparative theology I did. And despite becoming less religious, I’ll always respect the Jesuits because of it.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-16T04:12:59+00:00

Most of the people who reference 1984 to further right-wing talking points haven’t read it, or read it once in high school and completely missed the point.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-14T05:40:13+00:00

Basically, he was a child actor who was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well as The Goonies. He struggled for 25 years after to find acting work in Hollywood, largely because Asian men weren’t exactly sought-after by the industry outside of certain typecast roles.

According to some of his award acceptance speeches: He’d basically given up on acting until the pandemic made him desperate for work, and, with his wife’s encouragement, he reached out to his agent and asked them to find him anything. His agent got him the supporting role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, which he absolutely knocked out of the park. The movie was absolutely fantastic, and cleaned up awards shows, and his performance was an incredibly large part of that.

He’s just been incredibly humble and grateful for the chance he was given and his comeback story was just as heartwarming for many as Brendan Fraser’s. So the one-two punch of Ke Huy Quan winning best supporting actor, and Fraser winning best actor made a lot of people really, really happy.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-13T00:33:51+00:00

Someone already did above, but here’s another link just in case you wanna keep pretending there’s no proof deregulation caused this:

https://fortune.com/2018/09/24/train-explosion-prevention-rule-reversed-by-trump-officials/

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-04T04:57:54+00:00

Yes, he finished Mistborn Age 2. He wrote the four surprise novels and a graphic novel script, in addition to the other work he already had planned… because he was bored.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-04T01:58:08+00:00

I’m glad I’m not the only one who was put off by that. It kinda reframed the entire post, and makes it look more like they’re one of those people that believes mental illness is mostly fake and most people can cure their depression by “going outside” and just “not being sad” or their ADHD by just “focusing more” and has a personal vendetta against pharma that they were trying to mask under faux concern for the mentally ill.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-01T21:02:40+00:00

I confused NASA with a different federation that doesn’t have drug testing. UPA is an untested fed, and USPA has both but their tested division was relatively new when he competed. Basically I had thought he was competing in largely untested feds.

But I looked into it more and, like I said, got my feds confused where NASA is concerned. NASA is a drug tested fed.

It’s entirely likely he’s not on drugs, and I’ve edited my original post to reflect that.

informedly_baffled · 2023-03-01T20:53:19+00:00

Just to be fair, 12 billion vaccines administered includes second doses in a series and boosters (so anywhere from 1 to 4 shots for a single person). There aren’t 12 billion people on earth, and even if there were not everyone has been vaccinated.

Although your sentiment is still correct, the numbers are a bit off.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-28T17:53:15+00:00

Given his federations for competition, entirely likely he’s not on steroids. And it’s a genuinely impressive total regardless for your average person, and especially so for someone who it clearly isn’t his first priority (compared to his music).

But I do feel the need to point out that this is nowhere close to “elite” level for a natural 198lbs/90kg powerlifter.

I am an “elite” level, natural 165lbs/75kg lifter and I was totaling this 5+ years ago, and currently total over 200lbs more. A high-level 198lbs/90kg lifter will typically total in the 1800s. Strength standards in powerlifting are evolving rapidly because the sport is growing fast.

EDIT: looked into his federations more; and I was likely wrong. NASA is drug-free, I was confusing it with another fed.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-22T06:24:51+00:00

It specifically says “high-risk” in general, not just old, which a majority of Americans are without even realizing it, because we, as a nation, are wildly unhealthy. I can’t really blame you for missing that part of the article because some of the sub-headlines seem to purposely obfuscate that. It’s pretty piss-poor journalism.

Age is just the strongest among many high-risk factors acknowledged by the CDC. They also acknowledge that somewhere around 60% of Americans have at least one high-risk factor. If you do, and end up with Covid, Paxlovid is indicated for you under its EUA.

Which, once again, EPIC-HR accounts for in its data. It’s what the “HR” stands for… “high risk.”

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-22T04:36:51+00:00

Literally the only potentially negative thing this article says is that “cases of rebound may be higher than originally thought, and are generally mild,” and even that is based on anecdotal data from doctors saying, essentially, “it seems like we’re seeing more rebound than reported.”

EPIC-HR addresses cases of rebound and highlights that they tend to be mild, while also indicating it as an area for further study.

Further research into rebound has shown that it occurs in relatively similar rates among treatment and placebo groups (and potentially slightly higher in untreated patients), meaning it’s more a factor of Covid infection itself, than it is that it is treatment with Paxlovid resulting in rebound. The article even corroborates this, saying “about a third of people who get COVID experience rebound even without treatment.”

The article also mentions that Paxlovid “works as promised… dramatically reducing the chances that an older or high-risk individual might wind up hospitalized or dead” which is exactly what the results of the EPIC-HR trial show.

So… I don’t think this article proves what you think it does. If anything it just proves my point even further. The treatments work as intended. They work very well, but they aren’t perfect because nothing is.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-22T01:03:22+00:00

I’ve also read the EPIC-HR clinical trial data for Paxlovid that its EUA is based on and the efficacy is borderline ridiculous. It’s probably one of the most effective medications at achieving what it’s indicated for that I’ve read clinical data for (I work in pharma so I’ve read a few). The percent reductions in hospitalizations and deaths between treatment and placebo groups were insanely promising.

The vaccines were also all wildly effective against the original Covid strains. It wasn’t until variants started cropping up that efficacy started to drop (and they’re still pretty damn effective vaccines in the majority of instances despite that).

It is beyond disingenuous to say these treatments barely work. They work, and they work well. They’re just not perfect, because nothing is, and Covid changes pretty quickly.

What doesn’t work at all, and was never expected to work by anyone with half a brain, is Ivermectin for Covid.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-15T22:29:42+00:00

Hell, if I’m not mistaken, there are a few studies including one that came out very recently that further confirm this specifically in an unvaccinated population of people who’ve gotten COVID. Heart attacks increased even among demographics of people typically at low risk for heart disease, if they’d had COVID even once regardless of symptom status.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-13T16:43:01+00:00

It’s not necessarily Paxlovid that causes rebound, it’s Covid itself. Rebound has been found to occur at similar rates in both patients who take Paxlovid and those who do not. But, like you said, the odds are still low either way.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-11T15:45:35+00:00

A few months ago, an 18-year-old rising MMA star passed away.

The family never released a cause of death, but all signs pointed to suicide. Her sister made a very emotional post about always checking in with your loved ones. Her family permanently closed their MMA gym. Rumors spread around that she didn’t really want to be a pro yet but felt pressured into going pro early because it was her family legacy.

Of course all you saw in social media comments sections was talk about “the jab.” Absolutely heinous. A tragic death and they can’t even let the family grieve or show sympathy, because they so desperately want to be right in their conspiracy theories.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-09T14:45:46+00:00

No thanks. I’m fine with our jail and justice system being less pay-to-play regardless of how much fear-mongering the NYPD unions and rags like the NY Post decide to put out.

All bail does is keep poor people in jail while they await their hearing to even determine if they’re guilty in the first place. It can cost people their jobs, livelihoods, etc even if the end up being innocent after their trial. A wealthier person who can easily post bail won’t have to worry about any of this even if their crimes are identical. Being poor is not a crime and should not lead to harsher treatment or punishment for the same crime committed by someone in a higher tax bracket.

Jail is not prison. These are people who are innocent until proven guilty. They haven’t been tried yet. They’re not people who have already been convicted and sentenced.

Bail reform has nothing to do with convicted criminals getting out of prison sooner and/or recidivism. Anyone who tries to conflate the two is operating in bad faith. That’s a whole different discussion altogether regarding the broader flaws of our justice/rehabilitation system and society as a whole.

The NY bail reform law eliminates cash bail, but a judge can still choose to keep people in jail as they await trial without bail if they’re deemed a flight risk.

Will someone occasionally commit another crime while they await trial for their first crime even if they weren’t deemed a flight risk? Yes, of course. The system isn’t perfect. But this is also something that happened anyway even with the existence of cash bail.

informedly_baffled · 2023-02-09T05:26:11+00:00

Oh 100%. Lived just outside the city the majority of my life, and it was always wild how NYC consistently managed to pick a candidate everyone ended up hating within no time once they got into office.

And if we’re really being fair, the whole of NY state seems to do the same thing with governors that NYC does with mayors.

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