Joe Biden has always been a prolificliarandplagiarist, but on Wednesday he took things to another level.
While attempting to disparage former President Donald Trump for 'skipping out' on a 2018 visit to a military cemetery outside Paris (when in fact the Navy made a 'bad-weather' call), Biden claimed that his uncle, 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. "Bozey" Finnegan Jr., was shot down in World War II and eaten by cannibals.
"He was a hell of an athlete, they tell me, when he was a kid. He flew those single-engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones, and he got shot down in New Guinea. They never found the body because there used to be, there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea," Biden said during a Wednesday stop in Pittsburgh - an account which appears in the official transcript of his remarks.
"They never recovered his body, but the government went back when I went down there and they checked and found some parts of the plane," Biden continued.
Except that's total bullshit of course
As Jonathan Turleypoints out, there was a survivor who gave a detailed account of how Finnegan and another man remained in the plane as it sank. What's more, Bozey's plane was not shot down - it was a Douglas A-20 Havoc with two Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior 9-cylinder radial engines. The plane had mechanical problems when it crashed near New Guinea and simply sank into the ocean.
“On May 14, 1944, an A-20 havoc (serial number 42-86768), with a crew of three and one passenger, departed Momote Airfield, Los Negros Island, for a courier flight to Nadzab Airfield, New Guinea. For unknown reasons, this plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea. Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft’s nose hit the water hard. Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash. One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.”
What's more, Biden repeated it more than once! Watch:
So for those keeping track:
- Not shot down
- Not a single engine plane
- Not eaten by cannibals
All of which was has been in the public domain for decades. And not one reporter following him around pushed back on what could have been googled within seconds.
And according to AP - Biden was simply "off on details."
Meanwhile, Biden has falsely claimed at least 13 times that his uncle Frank won the Purple Heart, and said that he (Biden) was picked twice to attend the Naval Academy, when no supporting evidence exists.
In 2021, Biden told Jewish leaders that he remembered "spending time at" and "going to" Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 after 11 people were murdered in a mass shooting - which also never happened. The White House covered by later claiming he was thinking about a 2019 phone call with the synagogue's rabbi.
The first post in this three-part series on positive trading psychology emphasized the emotional and physical side of optimal performance, which has been called flourishing. The second post looked at the cognitive side of trading success, including the development of focus and deeper, faster processing of information. In this post, we'll examine the importance of developing a framework for understanding markets and creating our trading edge.
In any competitive endeavor, whether it is chess, basketball, or boxing, we have to understand who we are competing against. Notice that in all these activities, we don't just prepare for success by building ourselves up. We also study the opposition and their strengths and vulnerabilities. An important part of preparation for the next game is watching film, studying the opponent, and then formulating strategies and plays that maximize our strengths and take advantage of our opponent's weaknesses. Because the opposition is always changing, our game prep always varies.
Over the years, I've found that consistently successful traders possess a framework for understanding markets and opportunities. That framework clarifies three vital components of strategy: 1) who they are making money from; 2) how those other players behave in particular market conditions; and 3) the types of trading that work in those different market environments. We can think of a trader's framework as the essence of their business plan: it guides decision-making under dynamic conditions of risk and reward. As Michael Dell points out above, we need a dream to succeed, and it's our framework that helps us realize that dream in the real world.
Volume is always changing in markets, which means that market participants are always changing. Volatility is always changing in markets, which means that market moves always vary in how they extend and reverse. Correlations are always changing in markets, which means that what we are trading varies in its sensitivity to other markets. Without a framework to make sense of the environment we are facing today, we are as unprepared for game time as the team that never studies its next opponent. Can you imagine preparing for an outdoor football game without understanding the probable weather conditions at game time? Without studying how the opponent varies its offensive and defensive alignments and strategies?
This is an important reason mentoring is vital to a trader's development. When we are exposed to multiple mentors, we absorb different frameworks and ultimately synthesize those into our own. We develop our own positive psychology when we broaden and deepen our understanding of what to do and why we are doing it. Take a look at groups that are active in mentoring, such as SMB Capital; BearBull Traders; and My Investing Club. All feature multiple mentors that enable a developing trader to internalize a framework for making decisions under dynamic conditions of uncertainty. The result of all this mentoring, for a trader as well as a football quarterback, is what Mike Bellafiore calls a "playbook".
Trading psychology aids our performance, but having a framework for trading grounds our trading psychology.
TG Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TGTX), today announced two additional data presentations from the ULTIMATE I & II Phase 3 trials evaluating BRIUMVI® (ublituximab-xiiy) in patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (RMS), at the 2024 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting, being held in Denver, Colorado. Links to the data presented yesterday are included below.
Michael S. Weiss, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of TG Therapeutics stated “The data presented this week during the AAN annual meeting emphasizes our commitment to research and the multiple sclerosis community. We look forward to continuing to evaluate date from the ULTIMATE Phase 3 trials and presenting additional exploratory data throughout the year.”
Cerevel Therapeuticson Thursdayreported topline datafrom the Phase III TEMPO-3 trial, demonstrating that its investigational Parkinson’s disease therapy tavapadon can significantly improve the control of motor symptoms when used with levodopa.
At 27 weeks, patients on tavapadon plus levodopa saw a 1.7-hour increase in total “on” time without troublesome dyskinesia. In Parkinson’s disease, on time refers to periods of good symptom control, when patients can move and function properly. This effect was nearly three times greater in TEMPO-3 than patients who were given placebo on top of levodopa, in whom this measure improved by only 0.6 hours.
The treatment effect of 1.1 hours was “clinically meaningful and statistically significant,” with a p-value less than 0.0001, according to Cerevel.
Tavapadon treatment also resulted in significantly lower “off” time, which refers to periods when medication is starting to wear off and symptoms become more noticeable and difficult. In the trial, tavapadon was also safe and well-tolerated, with most of its side effects being mild or moderate in severity.
Cerevel CMO Raymond Sanchez in a statement said that the company is “highly encouraged” by TEMPO-3’s results, which he added has shown that tavapadon has “the potential to provide people living with Parkinson’s disease the right balance of motor control, safety and tolerability.” Data from Thursday’s readout will support regulatory submissions for tavapadon, according to Cerevel.
Tavapadon is a potentially first-in-class selective partial agonist of the D1/D5 receptors, which are dopamine receptor subtypes that directly regulate motor activity, according to Cerevel’s website. This mechanism of action allows tavapadon to specifically activate the brain’s motor pathways while minimizing side effects such as sleepiness, sedation, hallucinations and impaired impulse control.
Significantly, tavapadon maximizes the activation of D1/D5 receptors while avoiding prolonged hyper-excitation, which typically leads to dyskinesias and “off” time.
Cerevel is currently testing tavapadon the Phase III TEMPO clinical development program. The late-stage trial is an adjunctive study and is designed to evaluate tavapadon when combined with levodopa. Cerevel is also assessing the candidate as a monotherapy in the TEMPO-1 and TEMPO-2 studies, data from which are expected to come out in the second half of this year.
TEMPO-4, meanwhile, will evaluate the long-term safety and tolerability of tavapadon.
Thursday’s readout comes just four months after AbbVie in December 2023 dropped $8.7 billion to acquire Cerevel and its pipeline assets targeting various neurology and psychiatric indications. The deal is expected to close by mid-2024.
The latest transformative outcome of the buzzy weight loss drug may be the most profound yet, with a growing number of patients claiming that the GLP-1 medication — and others like it — have caused anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, even as they shed the pounds.
Looking into the science behind the life-changing jabs, experts revealed why the medications, originally intended to treat diabetes, could be changing people’s personalities and behaviors.
Ozempic, and other popular treatments like Wegovy, have an impact on dopamine levels, which are responsible for a range of functions.
Along with impacting our emotional and physical drive for food, the brain chemical impacts feelings of reward, pleasure, motivation and movement.
These changing levels could help explain why some users have even claimed the drugs have also reduced their cravings for drugs, alcohol and sex.
Dr Kent Berridge, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, explained to The Daily Mail that both addictive substances and food activate the same dopamine signals and reward-learning regions in the brain.
He also noted that: “Cravings for addictive drugs are also amplified by hunger.”
“When researchers are trying to get animals to learn to self-administer cocaine, they often will keep them hungry for a little while, as this helps them learn,” Dr. Berridge explained.
The medical expert added: “Hunger is specifically for food but it’s more general than that, it activates craving for a lot of things. If you’re hungry, the motivational value of things, even that are not food, seems to increase.”
Dr Kent Berridge, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, explained to The Daily Mail that both addictive substances and food activate the same dopamine signals and reward-learning regions in the brain.REUTERS
Because these drugs help patients to feel satiated for longer, experts believe they then also lessen cravings for things other than food as well, such as drugs and alcohol.
“Satiety may be not only reducing the craving for food, but potentially for other things,” Dr. Berridge said.
GLP-1 drugs appear to alter the motivational dopamine systems, dampening but not eliminating desires. For example, patients have found that they don’t lose their appetites but eat less while on these medications which experts believe could translate to other vices.
“That would be a possibility — taking the [edge off certain cravings], and those are the ones that are problematic if you’re trying to lose weight or if a person is trying to stop taking drugs,” Dr. Berridge said.
Because these drugs help patients to feel satiated for longer, experts believe they then also lessen cravings for things other than food as well, such as drugs and alcohol.Getty Images
He also shared that a decreased libido while on GLP-1 drugs is “conceivable.”
Dr. Berridge explained that because sex is a pleasurable natural desire, suppressing the reward pathway could lead to a reduced sex drive.
“If you’re suppressing [dopamine activation] a little bit and cutting down those mountain peaks, sexual desire is a natural peak, so that would be plausible,” the medical expert said.
However, he admitted that exacly how GLP-1 drugs are suppressing dopamine systems is still unknown.
The FDA requires that medications for weight management that work on the central nervous system, including Saxenda and Wegovy, carry a warning about suicidal thoughts.
Ozempic, which is only FDA-approved to treat diabetes, does not come with that warning.
Lead study author Dr. Alexis Conason, a licensed psychologist in NYC, noted that triggering experiences such as changes in quality of life and unrealistic expectations also occur to those going through other weight loss treatments such as Ozempic.
“People put so much emotion and hope into weight loss, and are sold this fantasy that if they just lose weight everything’s gonna be okay and all the good things that they want in life will come when they lose weight,” Conason previously told The Post.
However, some patients have reported this changed mindset even when the needle on the scale drops but experts aren’t shocked.
“It’s not necessarily surprising when you see there may be an increase in suicidal ideation and other things like that because you’ve taken away a really important coping mechanism for many people,” Brooke Boyarsky Pratt, CEO and co-founder of weight-inclusive care company Knownwell, told The Post in 2023.
However, the medical expert admitted that how GLP-1 drugs are suppressing dopamine systems is still unknown.myskin – stock.adobe.com
Dr. Gregory Dodell of Central Park Endocrinology also noted that patients on medications that suppress their appetite may not be getting sufficient nutrients, which in turn disrupts their mental stability.
“So much of balancing our body is about what we eat and drink,” he said.
The European Medicines Agency recently said there was no evidence for a causal link between Ozempic and suicidal thoughts. The FDA came to a similar conclusion in January.
But some experts have also warned that they have not been available long enough to study the long-term effects and are likely being misused by some as a quick way to shed a few pounds.
