ACID LORE: THE DEATH PLUNGE

There’s this guy I knew at university. The night before the final exam results were to be released, he dropped some acid and went out onto the roof of his student residence block to contemplate the night sky with his mates.

As the drug took effect, he soon became overwhelmed with wonder and the feeling that anything was possible – that he was Superman. He began telling his friends that he could fly, and though they tried to stop him, he escaped their grasp, ran, and leaped off the roof to his death.

I’ve heard this story from friends several times over the years, each time with slight variations, but the basics are always the same: youth takes LSD (or mushrooms or PCP or some other psychedelic), believes he can fly, and finds out that he can’t.

So, what makes this piece of drug lore such a persistent myth? And could there even be a kernel of truth to the story?

https://psychedelicscene.com/2024/11/03/acid-lore-the-death-plunge/

Former President Trump claimed that Vice President Harris is “guaranteed” to get the United States into World War III if she is elected president, continuing intense rhetoric common throughout the 2024 campaign.

Trump spoke at a rally in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, arguing that Harris would be incompetent at dealing with other country’s leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“To make her president would be to gamble with the lives of millions of people,” he said. “She would get us into a World War III guaranteed because she is too grossly incompetent to do the job.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4955539-donald-trump-kamala-harris-world-war-iii/

Trump, 79, has repeatedly and forcefully denied that he suffers from any condition affecting his cognition, telling New York Magazine this week that he doesn’t suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

"He had one problem," Trump, 79, said of his father in the interview. “At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?”

Terris wrote that Trump then pointed to his head and turned to press secretary Karoline Leavitt to prompt him.

“Alzheimer’s,” Leavitt said.

“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump agreed. “Well, I don’t have it... I don’t think about it at all. You know why? Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever."

The Trump Organization appears to have overcharged the Secret Service for stays at Trump-owned properties by agents protecting the then-president. The charges exceeded the government's approved rate, according to the House Oversight Committee, which says Secret Service records show payments totaling over $1.4 million.

"The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents' frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President's self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump's struggling businesses," Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney wrote in a letter to Kimberly Cheatle, the service's director.

According to the documents, the Secret Service was charged as much as $1,185 per room per night, nearly five times the government rate, which is set by the General Services Administration.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/17/1129491352/trump-hotels-overcharged-secret-service-agents