Afroman's trial just started this week. Adams County sheriff's deputies sued him for using his own home security footage of their 2022 raid in his music videos. One deputy apparently broke down in tears on the stand over the satirical video. Afroman took the stand yesterday defending his music and the footage. The core question is whether using security cam footage of cops raiding your house in a music video counts as defamation. Wild case — cops raid your home, find nothing, then sue you for clowning them about it. Sources: - [NYPost](https://nypost.com/2026/03/18/us-news/afroman-clashes-with-adams-county-police-in-court-as-one-officer-left-in-tears-over-music-video-about-failed-police-raid/) - [TMZ](https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/17/afroman-takes-stand-in-ohio-sheriff-lawsuit/) - [Yahoo](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/music/articles/afroman-rapped-police-raid-home-220402123.html)

Yeah he did. He officially filed with the FEC to run for president in 2024. Filed the paperwork in April 2023 and ran as an independent. Didn't get far obviously, but it was a legit filing — not just a publicity stunt announcement. - [FEC filing](https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00837153/) - [TMZ coverage](https://www.tmz.com/2023/04/21/afroman-officially-files-president-candidate-2024-election/)

The article is about USS Tripoli (LHA-7) and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit being redeployed from the Pacific to the Middle East amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Key points: - ~2,500 Marines from the 31st MEU plus the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group (including USS New Orleans) are transiting from Japan/Pacific through the Malacca Strait toward the Middle East - Tripoli is an America-class amphibious assault ship — can carry F-35Bs, Ospreys, helicopters, and support amphibious raids and platform seizures - They're joining the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups, bringing total U.S. forces in the region to roughly 50,000 troops - The deployment is part of Operation Epic Fury, driven by concerns about Strait of Hormuz disruptions affecting global oil trade - 13 U.S. service members have been killed in combat operations so far Sources: [Stars and Stripes](https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2026-03-13/uss-tripoli-marines-middle-east-21053897.html) | [USNI News](https://news.usni.org/2026/03/13/uss-tripoli-31st-meu-heading-to-the-middle-east) | [BBC](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq8gj9n12g8o)

Escalation, not business as usual. A few signals: 1. *Pulling from the Pacific* — redeploying the 31st MEU from Japan means weakening Indo-Pacific posture, which the Pentagon has treated as the #1 theater for years. You don't do that for routine ops. 2. *Force accumulation* — two carrier strike groups + an amphibious ready group + 50k troops is a lot of iron in one region. That's approaching early-OIF levels of concentration. 3. *Amphibious capability specifically* — Tripoli with Marines isn't a defensive "protect shipping lanes" asset. It's an offensive platform for seizures and raids. Sending it signals the U.S. is preparing for operations beyond air/naval strikes — possibly island/platform seizures in the Strait of Hormuz or coastal targets. 4. *13 KIA already* — Americans are dying in combat, which creates its own escalatory momentum politically. The "business as usual" framing would be if they were just rotating a carrier group or sending a destroyer for freedom of navigation. This is qualitatively different — they're drawing down from a major theater to reinforce another, which means someone decided Iran is a bigger near-term problem than China. That's a strategic-level decision, not routine force management.

OIF = Operation Iraqi Freedom — the 2003 Iraq invasion. "Early-OIF levels" meaning the force buildup phase before/during the initial invasion. ~50k troops in-theater is significant but still well below the 130k+ that went into Iraq. Re: Hormuz — your instinct is right but it cuts both ways. The Strait is only 21 miles wide at its narrowest. Iran has spent decades fortifying the coastline with anti-ship missiles, mines, and fast attack boats specifically to make seizing it costly. It's the world's most important oil chokepoint (~20% of global supply passes through), so controlling it is the obvious play, but Iran knows that too and has built their entire defensive doctrine around threatening it. The amphibious capability (Tripoli + Marines) is exactly what you'd use for seizing islands and oil platforms in the Strait. Iran controls several strategic islands there — Abu Musa, Greater and Lesser Tunbs. Taking those would give the U.S. control of the shipping lanes. But that's a major escalation from airstrikes — it's taking and holding territory.

Best version of the argument, as I understand it: 1. *Shame doesn't work.* The empirical evidence is pretty clear that stigmatizing fat people doesn't make them lose weight — it actually correlates with _more_ weight gain via stress eating, cortisol, avoidance of medical care, and avoidance of exercise in public. If the goal is health, shame is counterproductive. 2. *Medical reductionism.* BMI is a population-level statistical tool, not a diagnostic one. It doesn't distinguish muscle from fat, doesn't account for fat distribution (visceral vs subcutaneous), and the "overweight" BMI category (25-30) actually has _lower_ all-cause mortality than "normal" weight in several large meta-analyses (the "obesity paradox"). The categories themselves are somewhat arbitrary — the threshold for "overweight" was lowered in 1998, instantly making millions of people "overweight" overnight with no change in their bodies. 3. *Moral neutrality of bodies.* Weight is significantly heritable (~40-70% of variation), affected by medications, gut microbiome, socioeconomic access to food, and metabolic conditions. Treating it as purely a choice/discipline issue is empirically wrong. You don't moralize about someone's height. 4. *Healthcare access.* Fat people avoid doctors because they get lectured about weight regardless of what they came in for. This leads to late diagnosis of conditions unrelated to weight. Body positivity, in its clinical form, argues that decoupling shame from body size improves health outcomes by getting people into care. 5. *Quality of life.* Even if being fat shortens lifespan, the utilitarian calculus isn't obvious. A person who eats freely, doesn't obsess over diet, and avoids the psychological toll of chronic restriction might have higher subjective well-being. We don't moralize about other lifespan-reducing choices (sedentary hobbies, moderate drinking, living in cities with pollution) with the same intensity. Where it breaks down: the movement often slides

It's a Thomas DeLauer podcast ep with Dr. Scott Sherr (board-certified internist, co-founder of Troscriptions). Title: "The New Nicotine Discovery that is Changing Neuroscience." ~30 min. I can't pull the transcript directly, but based on the chapter markers and Sherr's broader body of work, here's the gist: *Core thesis:* Nicotine (isolated from tobacco/vaping) is a potent cognitive enhancer and neuroprotectant that's been unfairly lumped in with smoking. Key topics covered: 1. *Nicotine as nootropic* — at pharmaceutical-grade microdoses, it improves memory, focus, verbal fluency, and reaction time by stimulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (especially alpha-7 nAChRs) 2. *Neuroprotection* — research on Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patients shows nicotine can improve cognitive function. Epidemiological data has long shown smokers get Parkinson's at lower rates — the hypothesis is nicotine specifically (not the smoking) 3. *The MIND study* — a clinical trial tracking transdermal nicotine (patches) for cognitive enhancement in non-smokers over 2 years, showing modest but real benefits 4. *Addiction nuance* — Sherr argues that nicotine alone (without the MAOIs and other compounds in tobacco) is far less addictive than cigarettes. The delivery mechanism matters enormously 5. *Practical use* — Sherr's company (Troscriptions) sells buccal troches combining nicotine with things like methylene blue and GABA for stacked cognitive effects The "new discovery" framing is probably about recent findings on alpha-7 nAChR signaling — these receptors don't just affect cognition but also modulate inflammation, which connects nicotine to broader neuroprotection beyond just the acetylcholine/attention story. Take with a grain of salt — Sherr literally sells nicotine products (Troscriptions), so there's an obvious commercial interest. The underlying science on nicotine cognition is real though; it's one of the more robust findings in psychopharmacology. [YouTube link](https:/

On it — pulling the transcript now.

Here's the full summary based on the actual transcript: *The New Nicotine Discovery that is Changing Neuroscience — Dr. Scott Sherr w/ Thomas DeLauer* *Core mechanism:* Nicotine binds nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, releasing dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, glutamate, and acetylcholine. The first four give you sympathetic activation (alert, focused, rewarded). The acetylcholine piece is the interesting part — it powers the vagus nerve (parasympathetic), so you get stimulated mind + calm body simultaneously. That's why smokers report feeling both alert and relaxed. *The anti-inflammatory angle (the "new discovery" framing):* - Nicotine downregulates inflammatory cytokines: TNF-alpha, IL-1, IL-6, and NFκB pathway - Primary target is microglia (brain immune cells) — calms them down, reduces neuroinflammation - Microglia when overactivated lay down amyloid plaques (Alzheimer's connection). The old amyloid hypothesis (plaques = cause) is wrong — the plaques are a _reaction_ to immune overactivation - Sherr uses nicotine clinically for long COVID, chronic infection, mold/Lyme reactivation, brain fog — says some patients take one dose and feel better for _days_, which he interprets as a sign of underlying neuroinflammation *Dosing:* - Threshold for tolerance/addiction: ~5mg/day. Stay under that. - Sherr's personal dose: 0.25mg nicotine + 12.5mg caffeine + 1.25mg methylene blue (in a troche) - People can feel effects at 0.5mg or even lower - Short acting (1-2 hours), which drives redosing behavior — slower delivery (troche/lozenge) is better than vaping/smoking for avoiding addiction - Patches work but poor bioavailability, lots of skin reactions *Why nicotine ≠ cigarettes:* - Cigarettes contain MAOIs and other additives that massively amplify addiction - Nicotine alone (without those compounds) is far less addictive - Vaping/smoking = fast hit = fast crash = redosing cycle. Buccal delivery is slower and smoother. *Methylene blue synergy:* - MB supports mito

On it — reading your nicotine notes first, then I'll cross-reference the main claims against published literature.

Here's how Sherr's main claims hold up against your notes and the published literature: *1. Nicotine as cognitive enhancer (attention, focus, verbal fluency)* *Verdict: ✅ Real, but modest* Your notes already confirm this — meta-analysis of 41 studies/978 subjects shows statistically significant improvement in attention and processing speed. Multiple RCTs confirm. But the effect is modest (not Adderall-level), and memory effects are mixed/inconsistent. Executive function is actually *refuted* — nicotine enhances bottom-up processing speed, not top-down reasoning. Sherr oversells this by listing it alongside dopamine/norepinephrine without the caveats. *2. Nicotine activates vagus nerve (parasympathetic) for "alert mind + calm body"* *Verdict: ⚠️ Partially true, oversimplified* The α7-nAChR/cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway is well-established ([PMC8895249](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8895249/)). But "calm body" is a stretch — your notes confirm nicotine raises resting HR ~5-10 bpm and elevates BP via sympathetic activation. It's more accurate to say nicotine activates *both* sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways simultaneously, which is unusual but isn't the same as "calm body." *3. Anti-inflammatory: downregulates TNF-α, IL-1, IL-6, NF-κB via microglia* *Verdict: ✅ Well-supported* This is one of the strongest claims. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex via α7-nAChR → NF-κB suppression is confirmed across multiple reviews and animal studies ([PMC9102429](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9102429/), [PMC5910455](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5910455/)). Nicotine does inhibit microglial activation and promotes the anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype ([PMC5375991](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5375991/)). However, your notes flag the important caveat that nicotine can *also* be pro-inflammatory in some contexts — it's dual-natured. *4. Amyloid plaques are a reaction to immune overactivation, not the cause of Alzheimer

Yes, there's actually a decent body of research, mostly on Swedish snus (which is the OG high-dose oral nicotine product). Key findings: *Epidemiology (Swedish snus users):* - A pooled analysis of 8 prospective Swedish cohorts (169k never-smoking men) found current snus users had *28% higher all-cause mortality*, 27% higher CV mortality, and 37% higher "other-cause" mortality vs never-users ([PMC7825961](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7825961/)) - Interestingly, mortality increased with *duration* of use but *not* with weekly amount consumed — suggesting it's chronic exposure, not peak dose, that matters - A separate Swedish study found snus associated with increased stroke risk (particularly ischemic) in never-smokers, but *not* with major heart disease events ([PMC8103653](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8103653/)) - Cancer risk: most studies show no significant oral cancer link for Swedish snus specifically, though some signal for pancreatic cancer - Swedish Match data: typical snus users absorb ~25mg nicotine/day from ~16 pouches ([Swedish Match](https://www.swedishmatch.com/Snus-and-health/Research-on-snus/Nicotine-uptake/)) *High-dose nicotine pouches specifically:* - A 2024 study tested 30mg nicotine pouches and found they deliver *double* the peak plasma nicotine of a cigarette (29.4 vs 15.2 ng/mL), with significant acute CV effects: +25 bpm heart rate increase, elevated arterial stiffness ([PMC11150668](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11150668/)) - A German risk assessment of nicotine pouches found even single pouches exceed the acute cardiovascular reference dose by *20-fold* ([PMC11568777](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11568777/)) *The bottom line for Nick's point:* Scandinavians do consume far more nicotine than what Sherr is recommending (25mg/day absorbed from snus vs Sherr's 0.25-0.5mg). They don't drop dead — but they're not getting away scot-free either. The epidemiological data shows real increases in CV mo

You're right to push on this — relative risks are notoriously misleading. Here's what HR 1.28 actually means in concrete terms: *Life-years lost:* ~2-3 years of life expectancy, give or take. (Scaling from the well-established ~10 years lost from smoking, using the log-linear HR relationship.) So snus is roughly 25-30% as bad as smoking. *Absolute risk at age 50 (10-year window):* - Non-user: 3.5% chance of dying - Snus user: 4.5% chance of dying - That's 10 extra deaths per 1000 men over a decade *Absolute risk at age 60 (10-year window):* - Non-user: 10% - Snus user: 12.6% - 26 extra deaths per 1000 men over a decade So yeah — "28% higher" sounds scary, but in absolute terms it's going from 3.5% → 4.5% at age 50, or losing roughly 2-3 years off an 81-year life expectancy. That's the difference between dying at 78 vs 81, not between dying at 60 vs 81. For context, that's in the same ballpark as being sedentary (~3-5 years lost), or moderate obesity (~2-4 years lost), or living with chronic stress. Not trivial, but not catastrophic either — and this is at Scandinavian doses (~25mg/day), which is 50-100x what Sherr recommends. Important caveat: these are rough estimates extrapolated from the Swedish cohort data + standard actuarial modeling. The actual study didn't report absolute risk differences or life-years lost directly.

Your intuition is correct — the inverted-U is well-documented, but it's more nuanced than a single curve. Different systems have different inflection points: *Cognition: ✅ Classic inverted U* Your own notes have this nailed. Poltavski 2012: 7mg and 14mg patches improved cognition in non-smokers, 21mg did *not*. The meta-analysis confirms curvilinear dose-response for alerting attention and fine motor. The cognitive sweet spot appears to be roughly 7-14mg transdermal (which delivers ~3-7mg absorbed). Above that, nAChR desensitization kicks in and you lose the benefit. *Neuroprotection: ✅ Inverted U, lower threshold* Animal data is striking — chronic nicotine at 0.75-1.5 mg/kg/day protected dopamine neurons from toxin damage in rats, but 3.0-30.0 mg/kg/day *completely failed* to protect ([PMC1572727](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1572727/)). The mechanism: low doses activate α4-containing nAChRs, high doses desensitize them. This is genuinely hormetic — low dose protective, high dose neutral/harmful. *Cardiovascular: ❌ No inverted U — appears monotonic* This is where your model breaks down. I couldn't find evidence that low-dose nicotine is *cardioprotective*. The CV effects (HR increase, BP elevation, arterial stiffness) appear to be dose-dependent and linear, with no beneficial zone. The 2024 WHF policy brief and multiple reviews describe CV risk as dose-dependent without a protective low-dose range ([PMC10836189](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10836189/)). A 2024 review specifically concluded that low-dose nicotine does not have cardioprotective effects that outweigh its harms. However — there's a nuance. The *magnitude* of CV harm at low doses may be clinically negligible. Your notes flag that at 3mg/day, the CV signal is essentially in the noise. It's not *beneficial*, but it may be *so small as to be irrelevant*. *Anti-inflammatory: ⚠️ Probably inverted U, but poorly characterized* The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway via α7-nAChR

On it — researching now 🔍⛳

Here's what I found — a few solid options in the area: --- *🥇 Best combo: The Cigar Lodge (Akron)* 2989 S Main St, Akron — [thecigarlodge.com](https://www.thecigarlodge.com) You already know this place. It has a *pro-grade golf simulator*, full bourbon/whiskey bar, massive walk-in humidor, and cigars are the whole point. Public lounge is open to walk-ins. The vibe is exactly what you're describing — serious, not gimmicky. Probably call ahead to book the sim. --- *🏌️ Closest to a real range experience: X-Golf Fairlawn* Near Akron — [playxgolf.com/locations/fairlawn](https://playxgolf.com/locations/fairlawn/) Encourages bringing your own clubs, full bar, 8 state-of-the-art simulators, PGA instruction available. More golf-serious than TopGolf. *Cigar policy unclear* — I couldn't confirm they allow smoking, so worth a call. --- *🍸 Upscale lounge option: The Corner Club (Akron)* [cornerclubgolf.com](https://cornerclubgolf.com) | [golfsimmap.com listing](https://golfsimmap.com/venue/us/ohio/akron/the-corner-club) 4 Full Swing Pro 2.0 simulators around a central bar. $60-100/hr per bay, bring-your-own clubs encouraged. New restaurant opening spring 2026. No explicit cigar policy found — would need to confirm. --- *📍 Cleveland-side: CRAVE Golf Lounge (Willoughby)* [crave.golf/willoughby](https://www.crave.golf/willoughby/) Upscale, private, multi-sport simulator lounge with full bar. BYOB/food option. More of a members club now but takes group bookings. Also worth a call about cigars. --- *My rec:* Start with *The Cigar Lodge* since it checks every box explicitly and you've been there before. If you want an outdoor range vibe instead of simulators, nothing in the area clearly combines premium range + bar + cigars in one spot — you'd be better off pairing Glenmoor (since you have rounds) with a post-round cigar session at the Lodge.

On it — searching for outdoor ranges only ⛳

Firestone is primarily private — the main 3 courses (North, South, West) are members and invited guests only. But there are two public access options: *🏌️ Raymond C. Firestone Public 9* - Legit 9-hole public course on the Firestone property - Full Firestone conditions (same turf, maintenance) - Driving range + short game area included - Restaurant on site (lunch/dinner) - No membership required *🏨 Stay & Play Package* - Book a 2-night stay + 3 rounds on the actual championship courses - Groups up to 8 — could be a legit guys weekend option - Pricey but it's a bucket list Midwest golf trip So if it's just a range day, the Public 9 gets you on the property with access to the driving range. If you want to go bigger, the stay & play gets you on the real courses. Worth calling to confirm cigar policy: *330-644-8441*