Are you considering a Caribbean medical school? There is a lot of polarizing noise out there. Stick around for research-based information. For the best medical school personal statement coaching, definitely subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss a video. So let's start debunking myths. And first quick caveat, I am not endorsing any one school. Most of my students attend U.S. medical schools, but I have had a few successful students that have attended offshore medical schools, the OMS, right? A couple right now, happy as second years. I just want to provide information to arm you with kind of more details, and you can kind of make your own choices as you see fit. Myth one is that the Caribbean is overpopulated with medical school. And so this is true or not true, depending on your perspective. But there has been a substantial growth, about 40%, in the last 20 years, right? Since 2000, there were kind of a handful in 1950s and grew kind of exponentially slowly until now. And they are, for the most part, if not all, for-profit institutions. So that's something to kind of consider, right? Because the bottom line, money is kind of can be, let's say can be at the forefront of decision-making. And sometimes that's good because they keep it lean. They keep kind of services cater to students. And sometimes that is not that great for the student experience, right? They're about 2% of schools that are for-profit in the U.S., so that kind of gives you a stark contrast. Myth two, that the Caribbean schools are all created equal, and they're not. This is a super important point that I want you guys to kind of think about. The way that you are writing or kind of drafting your school lists for U.S. schools, you want to figure out your school list for Caribbean schools if that's a choice that you're going to take on. Because they're not created equal, right? 40% to 50% attrition rate in some schools, too much lower. In others, you want to make sure that you kind of have the information about the student experience, about the academic rigor, and the overall kind of experience that you want to have, doesn't match with what you want to have and what they're offering. In 2006, Dr. Jerry Thornton, Vice President of St. Matthews and Grand Cayman, proclaimed that his school was on par with U.S. medical schools. There are a couple of critics who publish a peer review article on the topic on kind of a deep dive on a few schools. I'll put the bibliographic information below. And so you'll have here that they acknowledge this distinction. The two academic critics, Zantin and Boulet, acknowledge that there is a distinction and assess the education in medical institutions in the Caribbean, country by country. And I'll show you a couple of tables, right? So this table is interesting to kind of see how students stack up regarding the boards of USMLE. First attempt, USMLE, this table, on average, 54% pass on their first attempt, 61% pass in step two, and 88% pass in a step two CS. So in a 15-year study, more than half of students pass in their first attempt for the USMLE. That's interesting to note, but the pass rate is starkly different school by school. So it ranges from 19.4 to 84.4 for step one, 26.3 to 79.7 for step two, and 60.6 to 97.2 for step two CS, CSA. That's interesting because they bolster certain academic and training programs and kind of show the weaknesses of the others. I watched my fellow YouTubes and there is a video that I'm going to link above. And there's a big caveat that I'm learning myself, that I didn't know about whether or not these pass rates are skewed because of who is allowed to take. So not all students are taking it. Maybe they are perhaps taking like a pretest in school before they can sit for these boards. I'm going to link that up here because I thought that he kind of offered a very thoughtful counter argument to the numbers and kind of really thoughtfully synthesizes the numbers and I want to give you as much info as possible. Myth three, getting into a Caribbean medical school is easy. Well, not so much. Here is a table of acceptances with the kind of student stats. And according to the New York Times article that I'm showing you guys below, they are considered second chance medical schools in the sense of for high performing students who maybe didn't do as great on the standard on MCATs, let's say, and so are offered a second opportunity. But by no means these are like still court like all the pre-med courses, all of the rigor that you have expected to kind of encounter in your undergrad. These students are definitely kind of undertaking that rigor. Myth four is that Caribbean schools do more bad than good. And this is the tricky one, right? Because we do have a very stark need, especially in rural places in the U.S. for family practice. A lot of times, and I'll show you the table with the numbers, a lot of times these practitioners from international medical schools are kind of filling that gap. CIMGs, right? Caribbean students are going into family medicine. And so plus and minus, right? If you are going into a more competitive specialty, maybe Caribbean medical schools is definitely not your kind of route to choose just because they don't really place a lot of plastics or cardiology, neuro, all of these. There will be a kind of outlier or a few students, but it's not usually the trend, the norm. A lot of them are going into kind of family practice. So here is a study by Duvier and it revealed that they make up a considerable percentage that practice family medicine. They were trained in Dominica, Mexico, St. Martin, demonstrating that these institutions are kind of helping us fill gaps in our own workforce. Approximately 40% of the family medicine workforce in Florida, New Jersey and New York are kind of filled by students that attend medical school abroad. So here are two tables, about 30,000 IMGs practice family medicine in the US in 2017. And out of the top 20 countries in which family medicine IMG study, countries in the Caribbean make up nine of the 20 within the list. Like undergrad, there are quite a few students who change their specialty during medical school, right? Like you're in it there, you're kind of finally figuring out where your passions truly lie. And so sometimes that can change. And if you kind of pigeonhole yourself to a program that is churning out productive family medicine and practitioners, but you don't want to do that, that's a drawback, right? We also don't want to overlook the cons, the kind of harder aspects of the everyday grind that is going to a Caribbean school. And there are programs that are remedying the situation, which is great. But I wanted to show you this table because students do face obstacles that are notable to mention here. Social isolation. Now with COVID, you want to figure out what the precautions are, how and if they will open in the fall, let's say, change in learning styles. So there's more large lecture halls and less small group practice skills, less emphasis on research, maybe subpar learning facilities. And some schools will have accreditation issues, which is why it is so, so important to do your homework. So main deal, do your homework. You don't want to get into an obscene amount of debt and just come back with crushed dream, right? You want to make sure that this, if you're going this route, that this is the route for you. And yeah, thank you so much for watching. I will kind of copy paste all of the tables and research articles that I found in the description. If you want to talk to me about your personal statement and how I work with students, definitely book your free 15 minute call with me. That is also in the description. Thanks for watching. Hit that like button and I'll see you soon. Thank you.


My name is Kim Ward and I'm Keith Ghostland and this is All Things LGBTQ. We are taping on Tuesday, December 29th. We wish to acknowledge that All Things is produced at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which is unceded Indigenous land. And with that, we're going back to Linda. Well, before I get started, I would like to thank Kim for standing in for Ann. She will be back next time and we really, really appreciate it and you've done a great job and we hope you come back at some point in time when we're on vacation or who knows what. But thank you so much, Kim. And so I will start with a mural dedicated to beloved activists in Philadelphia is painted over without warning. Gay Indian American gets a key post in the Biden administration. Gautam Raghavan, man, will be Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel and, you know, I will butcher everybody's name in here. Killer party monster Michael at a league found dead in his New York City apartment from a heroin overdose after spending 17 years in prison for a second degree murder. He was 54. He was a ringleader of what was known in New York City as club kids, a group of flamboyant New Yorkers who threw and attended drug-fueled parties. Anti-gay counselor Marcus Bachman gets presidential appointment. Yes, Bachman is the husband of famous homophobe Michelle Bachman, the infamous congresswoman. Marcus is known for practicing conversion therapy at his so-called Christian counseling clinics. Katie Hill, Sue's her husband and media outlets that publish nude pictures of her. We'll have more about that. Stonewall dancer Bobby Soleto dies of COVID. He was witnessed to the Stonewall Rebellion and respected in the Savannah LGBT community. He was 74.  Sounds very exciting.  Representative Denver Riggleman from Virginia presided over the nuptials of two gay men who were his campaign aides. This was this, the Republicans said was against their principles. So they are not happy about that. Marvel's first lesbian Latino superhero is making her big screen debut. America Chavez, also known as Miss America, will be played by, and here's another oxhilt Gomez, a tribute over the course of 100 years, 101 years of the nation's longest lived lesbian, and we'll have more about her.  This may have been done, as it turns out, by some people in the San Diego police department. So, and that's it for my story. Oh, about, I was going to tell a little story about queer organizers in Georgia helped the fight to change Georgia. So we'll have a little bit about that. Okay, Kim. Okay. So I have a few stories including that COVID has complicated the lives of queer folks more than some this year, and we'll talk a little bit about what that has been like around the world. I have a short story about Larry Kramer and how his message lives on. Some female athletes have signed a brief in support of trans girls and women playing sports. The LGBTQ community leads a call for equality in Thailand. There's also a bit of a report from the UK's by community news about by health and how that is researched and how we are included within it. Hungry has passed a bill prohibiting adoption for non married couples. Legendary comic Eddie Izard now uses she her pronouns exclusively in one of my entertainment news pieces. And then the second one that I have for entertainment, the first non by nary and trans characters have entered the Star Trek universe in season three of discovery. So I'll talk about those. Be me up Scotty. Be me up indeed. Did you see that the little blurb this week out one of the visitors to the space, the International Space Station about 10 years ago took up a laminated card that had Scotty's ashes in it and he hid it on the space station. I love it. I'm a huge Trekkie so I'm off for that. So it lives on. So the trivia question out in the mountains, January 1990. That was 30 years ago. Vermonters, we were getting on buses and heading to Atlanta, Georgia. Why? So Boston City Council by unanimous vote has passed an ordinance that now creates a non binary option on all documents, certificates and forms that are generated by the city of Boston. Positive move. Darryl Goodwin. He's appointed the first openly gay and person of color as a conference minister for the southern New England district of the United Church of Christ. And the district includes Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut. Why we're might be interested in this is Darryl got his masters at UVM. And while he was there, he started an inclusive campus ministry that continues to function today. Fenway Community Health in Boston has released their LGBTQ plus senior studies. And for people who don't know the Fenway, it is the largest and oldest LGBTQ plus health care facility in clinic in New England. They did a study of seniors 50 to 75. Now, since the Fenway is in Boston, these seniors and the people participating in the study are also going to be from the greater Boston area. Because as we have reported before, remember, we're absent from all of the data collection on a federal level by deliberate action of the 45 regime. What the Fenway found is that LGBTQ plus seniors are twice as likely to be suffering the effects of depression and isolation than cisgender straight people. We are twice as likely to suffer injuries from a fall. We are more likely to have college degrees, but we are also more likely to have difficulty paying our rent and experiencing food insecurity. And some of the contributing factors that the Fenway identified is the social isolation that is the result of systemic anti-LGBTQ plus discrimination. And their study said this is dramatically heightened if you're an LGBTQ plus senior and you're also part of the BIPOC demographic, Black, Indigenous, people of color. Related to that, and I had reported before that I wasn't seeing a lot of data about COVID in the queer communities. This is the survey that was released by Movement Advancement Project, impressive name. They got their data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, TH Chan Harvard School of Public Health, and NPR, all very credible sources. They found that 66% of LGBTQ plus households are experiencing financial stress, unemployment, struggles to balance work and child care, specifically because of COVID, as compared with 44% of our cisgender straight cohorts. They also found that 38% of LGBTQ plus people lack access to health care. They defined health care as health insurance, practitioners, or facilities, as opposed to 19% of cisgender straight. And this is where the statistics just seemed outrageous. If you are also LGBTQ plus and Black, 95% have difficulty accessing health care, including insurance and practitioners, 70% if you're also Latinx. And from the Human Rights Campaign, they said that 40% of LGBTQ plus we work in the most impacted industries by COVID, hospitals, K through 12 education, college, university, restaurants, food service, and retail. So that might account for some of the disproportionate impact of COVID upon the queer communities. LGBTQ Nation has reported that there has been a dramatic increase in the closure of LGBTQ plus venues because of COVID. In our area, in Portland, Blackstones, which has been there for 33 years, some of us may remember it, and is the only remaining queer bar in the city of Portland. They're currently doing a GoFundMe to try and keep their business together through April. As they report on their GoFundMe page, they have been self-financing since March. And then just a brief note, Amazon smiles that charitable donation when you use Amazon Prime, they're letting those anti-LGBTQ plus charities back on, such as Focus on the Family, American Family Foundation, Billy Graham Evangelical Associations. So if you use their site, be very careful which are the charities that you are identifying to benefit from your purchase because you may be giving your money to someone who actually opposes us. And when we come back around, I'm going to specifically talk about some of the mischief we've been creating here at home. So Linda, that means it's back to you. Okay, thank you, Keith. A mural was dedicated to a beloved activist in Philadelphia who was painted over without warning. Gloria Cazares, a Philadelphia's first director of LGBTQ affairs died in October of, excuse me, 2014 at 42. Artist Michelle Angela Ortiz, in honor of Cazares' legacy, painted a tribute to Gloria on a wall in the gate. The building has been sold and workers just painted over the mural without even letting them know. In response, this is really kind of cute because in response, Ortiz has projected the mural onto the blank wall that was painted over. So that was good. And let me see. Katie Hill, we all remember her. She resigned when she had pictures of her taken while she was a representative from California. And she was, they had put up nude pictures of her and a campaign staffer. I don't think she should ever quit. I think she should have just stayed and fought it out. But she resigned and she was defeated by the homophobe, Steve Knight, if anybody remembers him. I personally think she should have never resigned, but she is suing her ex-husband and the sites that put her up. So I think that's a good move on her part. And queer organizations in Georgia helped the fight to change Georgia. For the first five years, Mary Hooks has held the role of co-director or southerners on Newground Song and Atlanta-based organization fighting for LGBTQ liberation throughout the South. Hooks has made a name for herself. For her deep and impactful organizing work, among other work, she found the Atlantic Chaper of Black Lives Matter and also created Black Mamas bailout initiative to bail Black mothers and caregivers out of jail. The eyes of the entire nation are on these Georgia races. One between Democrat John Ossoff and Republican David Perdue. The other between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler. Both of the Republicans are the, well, one of the most despicable groups to ever walk into the Senate. The winners will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. Senate. Song Pawa, whose work is considered key to flipping Georgia blue in the 2020 presidential election, is working to, again, make history by helping to flip the Senate blue as well. There are 11,000 members with chapters in 13 Southern states. Song has been a staple of Southern organizing for decades. As such, Hooks and her team are relying on the deep connections the organization has built in Georgia. So we certainly wish her luck. We need those two senators. We can't just win one. We need them both. Once a fury by Jacqueline Rhodes, lesbians coming of age in 1971, and I have a picture of some of the people in that group, in a studio, in the studio is Charlotte Bunch, Lee Schwing, Ginny Berson, and Susan Hathaway, and the photo was taken by Jeb, who is pretty famous in the lesbian community for her photography. And her name is Joan E. Byron. You can watch the Vimeo at the Rainbow Umbrella Film Festival site on January 10th. I'll post the link on our LGBTQ website so anybody who wants to go look and find the link will find it there. Let's see. I think that might be... Oh, I know. I had a... Where'd it go? Hang on one sec. Sorry.  Oh, I know. I also have a picture. You will see it up on the screen now is a tribute for over the course of 101 years, the nation's longest-lived lesbian, was always out and proud.  Though she grew up in an integrated neighborhood, she and her family were bought from restaurants and other public spaces. Her father was born a slave. As an adult, her home was shared in the 40s through the 60s as a gathering place for the African-American LGBT community. In 1999, on her 100th birthday, Ellis led the San Francisco Dyke march. So three chance for her. And now we will go to Kim. Thanks, Linda. So COVID has complicated the lives of queer folks more than some this year. And LGBTQ plus communities around the world were hit hard this year by lockdowns introduced to the curb to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with many trapped at home alone or with homophobic or transphobic families. In Uganda, 19 people were arrested in March at an LGBTQ plus shelter and imprisoned for almost 50 days, charged with risking the spreading of COVID-19. Religious figures from Israel to the United States and the Ukraine blamed the spread of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ plus community with trans people targeted by police in Latin America, American countries, accusing them of violating gendered lockdowns. Also, Larry Kramer's message lives on. There is an article by Joanne Kennan that I found that discusses Larry Kramer, who we know passed away this year, of pneumonia. He's the author, playwright, activist who's best known for helping to define the AIDS era. In 2020 and beyond, he also will be remembered because the AIDS epidemic helped to define the coronavirus era. Kramer, who died of pneumonia at age 84, put his mark on both the culture and the activism around AIDS. And that virus would become a crucible, a defining experience for many of the then young scientists, doctors, policy thinkers, and epidemiologists who are confronting coronavirus today. Anthony Fauci, David Kessler, Robert Redfield, also Deborah Birx, to a slightly lesser extent simply because she's a younger incoming CDC director, Rachelle Walensky, facing Kramer's wrath. And in patients, these experts still early in their careers were forced to rethink how to do science and came to understand the importance of humility in the face of a relentless, powerful virus claiming an excruciating number of lives. And you can read more of Joanne Kennan's full story at politico.com. Another story, female athletes have signed a brief in support of trans girls and women. So Megan Rapineau, Billie Jean King, and 174 other female athletes signed an amicus brief in support of transgender girls and women playing sports recently. As women and LGBTQ plus athletes says their brief, they submit that all youth deserve an equal opportunity to participate in sports alongside their peers. Such equal opportunity benefits the entire sports community. The brief was filed in Hecox versus Little, a lawsuit brought against the state of Idaho, which passed a law this year banning transgender girls and women from competing in school sports as girls and women. The law also allows for a female student athlete to gender to be challenged and requires the athlete to undergo terrible medical exams to prove it. A doctor of the law says we'll have to examine the athlete's genitalia hormones and DNA and make a determination of their gender. Something that Democrats have pointed out is not recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. So it's a pretty scary story to think about. That was reported by LGBTQNation.com by Alex Bollinger. Additionally, the LGBTQ plus community is leading the call for equality in Thailand. Throughout 2020, rainbow flags have been prominent at almost every protest in Thailand. LGBTQ plus people are one of the most vocal groups in these youth led calls for democracy. They believe that gender equality can finally be achieved once Thailand itself is more equitable. It's not equal at all. So it's 15 year old LGBTQ high school student who has to be referred to by her nickname Jesse Black. She says her difficult experiences as a sexual minority in Thai society spurred her to join the protest. Jesse Ply says she was forced to wear male clothes growing up. Teachers often told her you should dress according to your gender on your ID card. She was forced to cut her hair short which she says hurt herself with steam and confidence. She says practically unimaginable to disobey teachers in Thailand where respect for authority figures is deeply ingrained into society. She says she would most certainly have been punished if she had worn feminine clothes and grown her hair long. I don't understand why it's so wrong to want to express myself, she says. The story came from the NHK World General Bureau for Asia if you want to read more on that. I also have a bit of a report from UK's bi-community news. 20 years ago most research into bi people's lives was lumped in with gay and lesbian people's data to produce figures on LGB experience often terming it gay or lesbian and gay and erasing our bi identities entirely. That's changed in recent years though. Organizations like Biblio helped bring academics working on bisexuality together and enabled resources to have a dialogue with activists and ordinary bisexual people about impacts bad or bi-erasing research had on people's lives. The report is pretty significant. It's got a list of statistics including Ugov, UK report from 2018 said that 30% of bi men and 8% of bi women say they cannot be out to any of their friends about their sexual orientation versus 2% for gay men and 1% for lesbians. These are all UK figures. Stonewall UK said 1 in 3 bi pupils are bullied over sexuality and 3 in 4 have not learned about bisexuality in school. In the USA the Williamson Institute found that bi people make up 52% of the LGB population. And last a US report by GLAAD completed in 2017 reported there's a major age difference in how likely people are to know a bisexual people person across all age bands they are much less likely to know a bi person than a gay or lesbian person. Hungary has passed a bill prohibiting adoption for non-married couples.  It's indirect discrimination while the law doesn't single out same sex couples as the country still refuses to allow them to marry it's unclear who the target of this recent bill really is despite the pretense of concern for child welfare. For bi's this law again legitimizes some of our relationships over others so that's problematic. At the start of this month a long-standing figure we talked about him he got caught David Via David Vig of Amnesty Hungary commented on this law reform this is a dark day for Hungary's LGBTQ community and a dark day for human rights. These discriminatory homophobic and transphobic new laws rushed through under the cover of a coronavirus pandemic are just the latest attack on LGBTQ people and Hungarian authorities. And last year two entertainment news pieces legendary comic Eddie Izard is now using she her pronouns exclusively and I have a picture of Eddie who is one of my favorite people. The British 58 year old was referred to with she pronouns when she entered on the Sky Arts reality series Portrait Artist of the Year by the other guests and host Stephen Mangan. When asked why she wanted to appear on the series she said I try to do things that I think are interesting this is the first program I've asked if I can be she and her this is a little transition period. It feels great because people assume that they just know me from before but I'm gender fluid I just want to be based in girl mode from now on she said. Izard has identified as both transgender and gender fluid since at least 2016 when she said she is somewhat boyish and somewhat girlish I identify with both but I fancy women. Izard was going to be stopping comedy but she has actually been completing 31 marathons in 31 days in 31 countries with 31 stand-up shows to raise money for a new organization she started called Make Humanity Great Again we know what that pun is on and so you can find out more about that at edizard.com and it's a really noble cause. So the first non-binary trans characters have entered the Star Trek universe. I have a picture of the two actors Blue Delbario on the left and Ian Alexander on the right. The representation of bisexual ace and non-binary folks is still lower on the prime time waves definitely right now but Star Trek is moving ahead with making that more accessible to the rest of us. They started as early as the first show with Captain Kirk and Ohura having an interracial kiss for the first time and they've moved on through their newest iteration Star Trek Discovery has two new characters Adira who is a non-binary character and there is a great discussion between two actors and Adira's character about they them which if you ever need to explain how to use it in a conversation it's done brilliantly so Adira played by Blue Delbario and Gray who is played by Ian Alexander. What I find lovely is that they also have stated that the gay couple that's on the show played by Wilson Cruz and Anthony Rapp who have always been out gay men acting they said they've very much been like male they've been like family moral models and father figures to them so that's all of the stories that I have. I just wanted to ask him do you remember excuse me Star Trek the second generation? Oh yes. The doctor is in love with this guy and he goes back to his pod. I absolutely do. Is that a female? That was the first character that was a trill that was oriented that was introduced and Dr. Crusher fell in love with the man who then got injured the trill was replaced into a female character and she said I can't do it I can't get beyond the fact that you're a female. Later on Jadzia Dax who is another trill has a whole episode she was one of the first primetime lesbian kisses. Her former husband comes back they're both a new host they're both women and they are not the the actual taboo for them in Star Trek is that they shouldn't be in love with former host people and so but it was a lesbian relationship so they've always been on the head of the curve I love that. I mean that was an amazing story for the time. It really was always ahead of the curve. They had a whole non-binary group of race called the Jani that will uh the first number one falls in love with this non-binary person who then says I can't do this except that they were also non-sexual so they weren't really non-binary human beings. And I heard in the other series the one that I didn't see but the Kirk the one that was on CBS specials I missed I couldn't see it but that on nine it was a lesbian in that. Yes I like that.  Well no I was going to say what I remembered the next generation episode was Dr. Crusher's final comment which was to the new host I can't move that quickly. Right sometimes human beings will get there but not me not today. So there was this indication of we may be coming back to this. Yeah and before we move on Kim thank you so much for giving a stronger and clearer voice on this show for people who identify as bisexual and non-binary. It is something for which we are going to need to be attentive both as a show reporting on our community and as a community in general to ensure that you know everyone is being brought in so. And if you find stories and you I will send them to you that's what I was just going to say. I'll send you more because ace you know asexual gray sexual non-binary you know there's a lot of folks who are just at the fringes and we're not getting in there so I'll send you all right but we are long past the time when we should have started this conversation so so looking at Vermont you know things for us to be mindful of the Pride Center and out in the open you know our largest established organizations are continuing to do virtual events so people should be going on to their websites and looking at what it is they're offering and particularly looking at that data that was coming out of the Fenway where we experience a great degree of social isolation because systemic homophobia we need to be looking at venues to counteract that. One of the things with the Pride Center and it's done in conjunction with Rainbow Umbrella is the Momentum Coffee and Chat on Sundays the next one is on Sunday the 10th starting at noon you can find the link on either the Pride Center or Rainbow Umbrella's Facebook pages. Out to the open offers a connection to seniors groups but the groups themselves are based in Massachusetts which for right now since their virtual events are probably not as big a problem. Also we're going to do a big shout out for those Town Hall forums that will be coming up soon and again because they are virtual events they rather than being geographically based they will be issue focused and we will be having an interview to air on January 9th with one of the organizers of the forums and one of the presenters to talk about the expectations for the forums and what someone could anticipate by joining one of these virtual meetings. Another acknowledgement the Pride Center is still looking or has an opening for director of their safe safe safe space program which is their violence trauma program cover letter and resume by Friday January 15th if you are interested program description their expectations of qualifications is on their website. I want to acknowledge that on December 20th at the Park and Berry it was the Pebbles of Compassion ceremony and this was done to create sacred space in the park to acknowledge the murder of unarmed people of color by police throughout the U.S. This was a huge step forward and it corresponded with the city of Berry displaying the black lives matter flag over the park for the month of December. Reagan Cina who is one of our out legislators has already indicated that with the legislature convenes again he's in the in the process of drafting and will be introducing a bill to create a foundation and from the preliminary descriptions it sounds like a public-private partnership to have funding available to people of color to become home and landowners and accompanying the article were statistics that made me step back. Vermont has only eight arms that are totally owned by people of color. In Burlington only 4% of the homes are owned by people of color even though people of color comprise 18% of the population. Another piece of the legislation that Brian is looking at crafting is not only establishing this fund which will have a BIPOC board of directors managing it they also want to look at each town in the state of Vermont setting aside one parcel of land specifically for purchase by someone who is part of the BIPOC communities. A huge step forward. I saw no indications of the funding they were looking at attaching to this or how that would be structured so this is definitely something we will be following. The other piece of data that was released this week relative to the city of Burlington is their use of force data and this is looking at the first 10 months of 2020. In one respect they reported that the incident of use of force and use of force is defined as an officer either points or weapon or uses physical force greater than merely applying handcuffs. It had decreased to only 149 incidents however the incidents involving those people who are identified as being black went from 25 to 29%. That's statistically significant and when you look at the population of Burlington they are only 6% of the population. In factoring out those incidents where it was identified specifically that a gun was pointed at an individual, 37% were towards a black individual and also out of the total number of arrests 19% were black and their initial traffic start data is also indicating that people who are black count for 12% the total stops that happen. So we have just a couple of minutes extra here. I didn't want to leave on a total downer note so even though we didn't try to put together a year in review there were some significant things that happened in 2020 for the LGBTQ plus community that should really make us feel good. There were two U.S. Supreme Court actions that were a great benefit to our communities. The first was their ruling that Title VII Civil Rights Act, sex, that sexual orientation and gender identity is included under the definition of sex so that those protections are now clearly extended to our communities. And the other is the story that Linda reported on on the last show with the lesbian couple from Indiana who wanted both of their names on their child's birth certificate. The lower court had ruled in favor of the lesbians. It had been challenged to the U.S. Supreme Court. They refused to take it up because it was a marriage equality that is a state decision which meant that the lower court ruling was the ruling in effect. Also acknowledging that both Utah and Virginia asked bans on conversion therapy for youth. Virginia being the first southern site to do it.  And I want to acknowledge that during this most recent election cycle there were more LGBTQ plus candidates elected to public office than on any previous election. There were over 334 newly elected officials. And keep in mind in Vermont, our LGBTQ plus representation in our legislature just increased to 13, including Taylor Spall as our first out transgender representative. And the incoming president pro tem of the senate is openly lesbian, beckaballant. So our trivia question before Linda reminds me that I didn't give you the answer. Out in the mountains, January, 1990, 30 years ago, why were we all heading towards Atlanta? And it wasn't for the nice weather. It was because there were two days of demonstration that were being planned. Keep in mind that Georgia is the origin of the hard work versus ours decision relative to sodomy. So part of this was a demonstration to demand the repeal of sodomy laws in 25 states. The other, the centers for disease control is based in Atlanta. And part of the demonstration at that point in time was to expand the definition of AIDS. Because at that point, only 16 very specific infections qualified as AIDS. And if you did not have a clinical AIDS diagnosis, you didn't qualify for disability that will support any of those entitlement programs. And you might not be included in some of the clinical trials. Very similar to COVID, how we responded to HIV and AIDS was very much based upon what the federal government was willing to make available and when it was willing to make that available. So with that, Linda, I think it's back to you. I want to wish everybody a happy New Year since we won't be here for the New Year until after the New Year. I'm hoping that we have some results on the Georgia election. But I just want to say, when 2002, 2020 is on its way out, open your doors, your windows, anything possible to get rid of this year. And on that note, remember to resist.


Yes, before anybody asks in the comments, the trailers are interchangeable. Patriot Prime Reviews is a channel for adult collectors and may not be suitable for children under 13 years of age. Viewer discretion is advised. Hey, what's going on, guys? Patriot Prime here once again with another video. But before I get started with the subject of this video, I want to give a huge shout out to my sponsor toyhacks.com. Toyhacks is a company that provides upgrade decals for modern Transformer figures along with reproduction decals for the vintage ones. While visiting Toyhacks, make sure and check out the Toyhacks Armory to see their line of Transformers weaponry in multiple colors. And toy stages for awesome display backdrops. Each purchase from Toyhacks earns you Robocents that you can use for future purchases. You can check your balance anytime in your cart. Toyhacks is a company run by collectors for collectors. So make sure and check out toyhacks.com and tell them Patriot Prime sent you now on to the review. The featured button this video is the brand new Transformers Legacy Leader Class Laser Optimus Prime. Now, before I get into the packaging of this figure, I need to clarify something. Last week, I posted a video of me opening this box up and it being full of Fruit Loops. That was a joke. I belong to a couple Facebook pages and people were taking pictures. They've opened the box up and one guy had a picture of a McDonald's meal in it. Another guy had cheez-its. So I'm driving home from work and I thought, hey, I'm going to fill the box full of Fruit Loops just to make a funny video. So when I got home, I took Prime out of this box, took my son's Fruit Loops here, removed the plastic bag, put it in here, put in that core class hot rod and filmed the videos.  I did not eat strange Fruit Loops. That was a joke. So there you have it. And it just feels funny how many people thought that really happened. I mean, come on, I have the bowl ready. Anyway, taking a quick look at the packaging. We've got some great artwork right here of Laser Optimus Prime in Robot Mode. There, there he is in Tanker Truck Mode, Transformers Legacy, Transformers on the side. I love how he's launching the missiles out of the shoulder pylons. That is so cool. Side of the box, Prime and the Tanker Truck. Back of the packaging, we've got Prime in Tanker Truck Mode, the Base Mode, Robot Mode. And down here, the little QR scanner. If you use your phone, scan that you will get a bio of Laser Optimus Prime. Side of the packaging is the Autobot artwork with Prime, hot rod, RC, blaster and bulkhead. So now without further ado, let's get Optimus opened up out of this packaging and check him out. And welcome to Patriot Prime Reviews. Actually, he is already opened up out of the packaging. Now, once you get Laser Optimus Prime all opened up and out of the packaging, you'll notice that he is actually packed in Vehicle Mode and I love this. In my personal opinion, I think Transformers should be packaged in Vehicle Mode. I think it adds to the surprise of seeing them in Robot Mode for the first time and I really wish they would bring that back. He also comes with a sheet of instructions that as usual is very well illustrated and easy to follow. He comes with an axe and sword and then of course you have Laser Optimus Prime himself. Now, taking a closer look at Laser Optimus Prime in his Tanker Truck Mode, I have to say the paint applications and sculpted details on this toy is amazing. I mean, look here at the sculpted details on the front of the vehicle. The paint applications there around the lights, the flame details on the side of the vehicle here, you got the gray Autobot symbol, which I don't understand why that's not the G2 symbol, details there on the smoke stacks, sculpted details on the roof. Not a big fan of the translucent windows because you can see all the junk there on the inside. You got the details there on the fuel tanks and on the back. I mean, just great details all over and love the wheels. The wheels look so good now bringing in the tanker itself. Just look at the top of this thing. Love the sculpted details. They just went all out for this tanker truck. I love the red there along the side. Once again, the wheels, the steps, the details right there back of the vehicle. Lots more details. I love this. I just think this is awesome. I mean, look at the details even there inside the wheel wells. That just looks great. Now for a quick comparison, let's bring in Earthrise Optimus Prime. So we'll get these two lined up and you could see that laser Optimus Prime is quite a bit longer than Earthrise. What really surprised me when I brought these two together, they really don't share a lot of the same mold detail. I thought for sure they had the same wheels, but bring these two in closer. They in fact do not. Laser Optimus Prime has completely different wheels than Earthrise and the same can be said for the trailer. So that's pretty cool. About the only thing that I've seen the same, of course, is the gas tanks right here. I do wish that Laser Prime had the more silver gas tank. And if you look here at the legs, he's got the flaps there up top. That little section right there below the knees is the same. And the feet look a little the same. And that's about it. So that's pretty impressive. So there you have Laser Optimus Prime in vehicle mode. Now let's get into transformation. Now we'll start things off with Prime's tanker. And right here where this pegs into the cab, you can actually flip this down as a stabilizer leg. So there is an option for you to display the tanker just like that.  Now you're going to just split the tanker apart. Bring down this little ramp, fold this section down. And the part of the tanker here is actually going to line up right there with that gap.  And there you go. There is Laser Prime's base mode, I guess, repair base. I mean, it looks all right. It's pretty cool. It's pretty much exactly what the G2 figure did. This whole top section here can rotate around. The turret up here can rotate around.  That's pretty cool.  Or I think it's a perfect fit for MicroMaster vehicles. So that's pretty slick. Now you can take this top section off here. It forms a double blaster that can actually peg right here on the back of Prime like so. Or put it right there on top of the cab so he now has some weapons for vehicle mode as he rolls into battle. Now speaking of weapon storage, you can also store the axe and shield inside the tanker truck. You got these little pegs right there that line up to the slots here. So let's get that pegged in. Actually, it's those there. So the shield plugs in, plugs in just like that. Then you got the sword. You got two little pegs sticking out right here. Those line up to the pegs I showed just a second ago. So you've got the sword and axe locked in place and now you can shut those up. Another thing that I noticed is this whole section here can pop off. So I don't know what the purpose of this is, but you can mount it on the back of Prime if you wish. So you've kind of got some road warrior thing going on right there. So it's an option. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but that's what I figured out. Now another cool thing, Prime also has more weapon storage in his vehicle mode. We'll go ahead and remove the axe and sword. I think I've been calling that a shield, but this can also peg in right here on the back. I'm going to have to extend this out. Okay, sometimes you actually do need to read the instructions. See the little slots right there? This is where the axe will plug in just like so. Then underneath Prime, just like the original toy, the sword with those pegs right there are going to line up right there. And there you go. So now you have weapon storage in cab mode. So you've got all kinds of options for that. And if you take a look at this trailer, there is weapon ports all over. Look at all the ones here on the inside, there on the outside, on the back.  Now another fun thing you can do is if you have a MicroMaster, go ahead and lock him in the trailer or put him in the trailer rather. You can shut the trailer up around him. Prime is out and about. The trailer opens up and can deploy a MicroMaster. So another fun option. There are all kinds of things you can do with this trailer. It is so cool. Lots of playability. So now let's get into Prime's transformation. Now to transform Laser Optimus Prime himself, first thing, make sure that there are no weapons attached to the figure. Then you're going to take the fuel tanks right here. Go ahead and collapse those in. Open the toes up. Now right here where these steps are, go ahead and pop this panel up. And now go ahead and bring the legs down. So now he looks like a go-bot. Next thing you'll do is bring these sections up and out of the way. Now take this cab section here right there below the windows and go ahead and just open that up. All the way just like so.  Now go ahead and split the front cab section. Open that up out of the way. Right there you can see the faux robot chest. Rotate that around. Bringing out the abs section. Watch this. That pops out really easy. It's just got little friction pegs right there. I swear it pops out every time. I was trying to watch for it this time, but no luck. So go ahead and get that in and attached if you have to. Bring Prime's head up. And that of course will unlock this little section right here where you're going to bring the arms out. So be very careful. Get that around the smoke stacks here. It does look like a mess right now, but it'll all fall into place very soon. So now go ahead and bring the shoulder pylons up out of the way. Take the door panels that we moved earlier with the Autobot symbol. Going to bring these up to fill out this little chest section right here. And now bring the chest down. Just slot in right over what was the steps of the vehicle. And then you peg in Prime's chest right around that. Then bring the arms in and lock those in place like so. Then bring the pylons down. Go ahead and take Prime's head and snap that into place right there. Rotate at the waist. Separate the legs.  Here on the back, bring the cab section back up. And now for the arms, don't take that little panel, flip that back, and flip out the fists. Now the fists are on a ball joint, so that gets pretty cool. Fold that back in place. Go ahead and do the same for this side here. Hard to get a hold of. There we go. Rotate the arms around. And there you have Laser Optimus Prime in Robot Mode. In Robot Mode, Laser Optimus Prime looks great. He really retains that G2 Laser Prime look with those giant shoulder pylons and great head sculpt. I love that. The only issue is I wish they painted his eyes a different color. You can barely see the eyes in there. It almost looks like he's wearing sunglasses or has a very dead eye look. Not a fan of the eyes whatsoever. I'm also not a big fan of the translucent plastic there on the chest because you can see the matrix inside. That's just kind of off-putting to me. There's a little yellow there on the shoulders, blue on the chest. You've got the red and blue for the arms, grey legs, grey torso, black shins, and blue feet. The Robot Mode compared to Vehicle Mode is a little plain as far as deco and paint applications, but he still looks really good.  It can look up and down. Of course, that little section there is going to pop up and it can do a complete 360. Mine is really tight. There's also a waist rotation. The arms are a little different. The arms can go up. They can go down. They can go forward if you move this flap out of the way, but there is no complete 360 due to the pylons. There is a rotation there at the shoulder. There's an elbow bend. And as I showed earlier, the wrists are on a ball joint, so there's lots of rotation for the wrist. Legs can go back. They can go forward. They can go out. They can go in. And there is a knee bend and thigh rotation along with ankle tilt. So lots of articulation for Prime aside from the complete 360 with the arms. And I don't know many people who display their figures with their arms pointed back anyway. Now, Laser Prime also has some hidden features in his Robot Mode up here in the shoulder pylons.  I think that's pretty cool. Those are done up in translucent plastic. And you know, I wish there was some way you could get some light piping to shine through those. I think that would look awesome, especially for the eyes too. Now, let's take a look at the Matrix. I've seen some people say that his Matrix is the exact same as Earthrise, so we'll open this up. And we have Earthrise Prime right here. So let's take a look. And upon closer inspection, those Matrixes are completely different. This one seems to be a little bit more compact and squat where Earthrise Prime is elongated. So yes, these are different. Now let's take a look at Laser Prime's weapons. And the first weapon we have right here is this translucent sword that looks really, really good. Not a big fan of translucent. I wish at least the hilt and handle were painted, but hey, it is what it is. And that's what the G2 version was like as well. So go ahead and get this in his hand. That is a tight fit. So there we go. Got the sword in the right hand. Now we'll bring in the axe and you just simply unfold this. Now like this, this has the handle that's a solid black and then the axe itself is the energy weapon. Or made of energy, however you want to put it. We'll put that in his hand and there we have Laser Prime all armed and ready for battle. And you know, that look reminds me of something. I just can't put my finger on it. Now another option you can do with the sword and axe is you can combine these two together. You see this little slot here on top of the axe, the hilt of the sword slides right in. So you can have Prime all armed up with some kind of mega sword lance thing. And you can take the double barrel blaster from the tanker and this will fit in Optimus's other fist. Plus you can also add blast effects to the pylons like so. So you have Optimus Prime really ready to take it to the Decepticons.  And now for some quick size comparisons. Here is Transformers Legacy Laser Optimus Prime with Generation 1 Optimus Prime, Titan's Return Optimus Prime, and Earthrise Optimus Prime. Transformers Legacy Leader Class Laser Optimus Prime is a great figure. I have really enjoyed messing around with this guy. He's got tons of playability, great looking vehicle mode, great looking robot mode. The only complaints I really have with the figure is the clear windows on the chest where you can see the matrix and the fact you can barely see his eyes. Now what I'm really looking forward to is the inevitable repaint in the Generation Selects Scourge. I'm really really hoping for that because Scourge here is one of my all time favorite Transformers figures. So there you go guys, Transformers Legacy Leader Class Laser Optimus Prime. So does a Transformers Legacy Leader Class Laser Optimus Prime belong in your collection? Absolutely. I love this figure. He's got a great vehicle mode, great robot mode, tons of playability, tons of great features, and I really don't have any complaints with the figure other than the translucent plastic there on the chest and the fact he looks like he has no eyes. Other than that, this guy is awesome and I have enjoyed messing around with him for the last couple of days. So yes, you see this figure on the shelf, pick him up, you will not be disappointed. Just make sure you smell the box first, make sure there's no fruit loops in it. Now guys, if you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe, and don't forget to click that bell icon to get notified when I upload new videos. Also, if you're in any position to help out the channel, I do offer channel memberships here on YouTube and I have to give a huge shout out to all my current channel members because it's support like yours that helps keep this channel growing. Once again guys, this is Patriot Prime, signing out.


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Today, we're opening one of my most nostalgic Yu-Gi-Oh! products, the Yu-Gi-In-Kaiba Collector Boxes. What's up guys? We're back with another opening video. In today's video, we have a giveaway. Yeah, we're going to start with that. We have three Legacy of Darkness first edition superiors. Just like the video, be subscribed, turn on notifications, let me know your most nostalgic Yu-Gi-Oh! product from back in the day, from when you got back into it, whatever. Just let me know the story in the comments. Alright, since we're talking about nostalgic Yu-Gi-Oh! products, you guys already know what we're opening. Why is this product nostalgic for me specifically? This actually came out, I don't know actually when it came out at all, but I know that in 2018, when I was playing Dual Links, I wasn't into the TCG anymore. I hadn't touched a card since 2006 pretty much, other than like my old cards I checked out every couple of years, but that was about it. I went to Walmart and I found these products, the Kaiba Collector Box and the Yu-Gi Collector Box. These are really, really awesome. And back then I was like, man, these are nostalgic. They had Kaiba Yu-Gi, they had old packs that have old cards and stuff like that. So it was really attractive to me and I bought a ton of these, probably bought like 10 or 20 total of like, not necessarily Yu-Gi and Kaiba, but just like random ones, whichever one they had and opened them up because my very first one I opened was, I think it was Kaiba, but I don't actually remember because they both have the Kaiba packs. I pulled a Chaos Emperor Dragon Ultimate Rare out of the Legendary Collection Kaiba or out of the Dualist Pack Kaiba, which was insane. So I remember these specifically, they were a big part of getting me back into Yu-Gi-Oh! Figuring out that cards are worth a little bit of money. Like the CD was like 30 bucks, which I think it still is around that price, which is hilarious. But when it was like worth 30 bucks, I was like, that's insane. I got to check out my old cards and you guys know how it is. When you get back in, you're like, oh, my old cards. I have all these cards. Then you realize unlimited condition, all that stuff and it kind of changes like what the actual value is or what you thought you might have. But a very cool memory. So I'm excited to do this. We're going to do a battle. So we're going to do with Kaiba versus Yu-Gi. We're going to see which one could pull more value out of the six packs that they have. They also have Starter Dex, which those kind of cancel out. We're going to see what's going to happen in the 6v6 battle, 12 total duelist packs. I'm excited for this. Let's crack these open and get into it. So first of all, we have a giant blue eyes wide dragon card, which is pretty sick.  It's hard to find anywhere to put them. But they are really cool though. So I like those. Then we have a smaller blue eyes.  You get a smaller blue eyes. Then you get even more blue eyes. You get the Starter Dex Kaiba Reload, which has an ultimate rare blue eyes inside. This is where you get the ultimate rare blue eyes. The only ultimate rare blue eyes in English for the TCG, which I mean, that is English, but that's pretty cool. It's pretty weird because like being the only ultimate rare, you only have to get it out of this Starter Dex. So this is the unlimited version. There's also another regular blue eyes. You get four total blue eyes, three a placex, you know, it's Kaiba. So it makes sense.  And then of course you get the three duelist pack Yu-Gi, which we've talked many times. These got screwed. There's no ultimate rares, which there should be. And then three duelist pack Kaiba, which are really cool. I think these originally came out in 2010 or 11. And these were like a year or two later and it seems like they were like, hmm, maybe we should put ultimate rares in these and then these never got them. So it's kind of unfortunate. They should have just done it on the reprints that would have been hilarious. The unlimited is just like more than the first edition because there's ultimate rares in it. That'd be kind of cool.  But of course you get the dark magician, the ultimate wisdom in terms of attack and defense instead of the blue eyes. So there's the dark magician. There's the smaller dark magician, which I think this is a really cool artwork. I like, it's weird that they gave this like a new artwork and this is just like an old artwork. Like did they ever do this before this? This is like a new dark magician artwork and that one's not. So I don't know why blue eyes didn't get a new artwork. Then you get the starter deck Yu-Gi Reloaded, which has the ultimate rare dark magician. I think the only ultimate rare dark magician as well. So kind of weird. You're getting stuff out of starter decks.  They don't have ultimate rare. So maybe that was why they did that. And then three Kaiba. So now we're going to do our battle. We're going to do six packs versus six packs. Let me know in the comments who will win. Will it be Yu-Gi? Will it be Kaiba? State your claim in the comments. We are going to start with a Yu-Gi pack from Kaiba's side. Let's see what he can pull. He has Light Force Sword, Fusion Wave Motion. The cards we want in here are Dark Paladin, Summon Skull, Dark Magician Girl, Mirror Force, stuff like that. We've got Queen's Knight and there's only five cards in these packs. So this is going to be a pretty quick opening and then we have a Black Lister Ritual and a Monster Reborn, which is just a rare. So very good card, which is just a regular old rare. So starting it off with not much on the Kaiba side. Now we're going to Yu-Gi. Yu-Gi will open his own Yu-Gi pack. Will he pull something good? We have King's Knight. We have Yellow Gadget. Pretty decent. Swords of Revealing Light. Very old school cards. Jack's Knight and a exchange. I think the super rare would be before the rare, so we might want to just flip those around. Now let's do a Kaiba pack. If we do pull an ultimate rare, that would be insane because the ultimate rare is actually a little decent value, even unlimited because there's Pot of Green, Cyber Jar, Chaos Emperor Dragon, Ring of Destruction and Crushed Card Virus, I believe are the five. So they're all like really iconic and classic cards. So we do pull one. It's going to be pretty insane. So let's do a little bit of a pack trick. We have Ancient Lamp. Here we go. First Kaiba pack. Legend of the Mysticals. You need a lamp. Lord of the D. Kaiser glider and a chaos and just like back in the day, we have not pulled this instant. We have pulled it out of a first edition box, but we have not pulled an unlimited one out of one of these products since 2018. We're talking nostalgic products and we pull the ultimate rare. I'm probably going to send this in. It's a little bit off-center, but I might grade this anyway. Chaos Emperor Dragon. I still have the one that I pulled back then because I was like, this is just too cool to get rid of. So I still have my original. That is insane. Oh my gosh. I might grade that original one actually. I can't believe we just pulled that. What team was that even for? I can't remember. It was Kaiba. Kaiba pulled it for Kaiba. Of course he did. What an amazing card. Unlimited. Probably still around 30 bucks, like I said earlier. What a video. All right. You cannot make that up, guys. We're talking about nostalgic memories, pulling the CD-ULT and we pull it again. That is nuts. It's actually a really hard pull, so I'm super happy with that. Now it's time for Yuki. Can you match it? If we pull two ultimate rare, I would take Pot of Greed. That'd be amazing. That would just be nuts. Reflector. We've got the ancient lamp. We have different dimension dragon and the interdimensional matter transporter. That's okay. Now it's going to be tough to come back from that one, Yugi. Very slow start for Yugi and a very fast start for Kaiba. So here we go. Keep it going. I can't believe you just pulled that. That's so cool. Oh no. Just swap those. We have a green gadget. Kuribo. All right. Yugi stuff. We've got the Black Luster Ritual. Card of Sanctity. And we have the Catapult Turtle. Common. All right. Nothing too crazy there. Back to Yugi's side. Yes. Comeback's not going to start with the Yugi pack. I can say that. It's not going to count. It's like $3. So it's not really going to help too much. It'll help a little bit. But not too much. We have Jack's Knight. Catapult Turtle. Red gadget. Very nice. Monster Reborn. And the Big Shield Garden. Actually a really cool card.  But probably not going to make the comeback. CED is a little too big for that. So let's go back into Duel's Pack Kaiba. If we pull another big one out of the same collector box, that would be insane. Let's see if we can do it. I'm down for it. CED has already been pulled. Let's pull something big. Legend Mystical Genie of the Lamp. A Genie of the Lamp that is at the back and call of its master, the CED. Wide Dragon Ritual. Very nice. Ancient Lamp. Pet in the dark clown. And finally we have... Ooh, a Fiend Sanctuary. Another Super Rare. So we are two for two on foils from Kaiba on Kaiba's side, which is very nice and very strong. So we have another Super Rare there. All right, back to Kaiba on Yugi's side. They're going to need something big. What if we pulled double CED? How crazy would that be? That would be pretty amazing. I'd be down for it. We have Yugi's side. Polymerization. He Totsumi Giant. Wide Dragon Head. Kaiser Glider. And finally we have... Ooh, White Stone of Legend. Okay, the first foil printing of this card, I think? I think it's from Crossroads of Chaos as a common. And then they reprinted as a foil in Duel's Pack Kaiba. So another Super Rare. We're actually pulling a lot of foils here, which is really nice. Okay. Kaiba, go with your last Yugi pack. We're going to save the last two Kaiba packs for the end for the epic comeback potentially. Swap those. Let's see what we can get. Brain control. Very good. Big Shield Gardener. Spell Binding Circle, a classic Yugi card. Magical Hats, another one. And... Oh, a Karibo. Very nice. It's a common, but very cool card. Last Yugi for Yugi. And then we finish it off with two Kaiba packs. I can't believe we pulled CED. That is so amazing. Let's see what else we can get. Catapult Turtle. Light Force Sword. Diffusion Wave Motion. Card of Sanctity. Allows you to draw six cards. That's actually not true, but that's what they send the anime. And... Queens Knight. Just a regular comment of the Queens Knight. This Knight catches her opponents off guard, dominating them with Swift, yet graceful attacks. Catches them off guard. Interesting. Two packs to go. Kaiba, you're going first. You are ahead right now. You have the CED pull. It is going to be difficult to come back from that. Can you put them away? If we pull another ulti, it's just over. Z-Metal Tank. Flute of Summoning Dragon. Wide Dragoon Head. Paladin of White Dragoon. And here we go. Sword Stalker. There he is. A monster formed by the vengeful souls of those who passed away in battle. Very cool. And now we have one final pack of the opening. Duelist pack, Kaiba. Already pulled a CED Ultimate Rare. Can we finish it off? Will Yugi pull one to return and make an epic comeback? Are they going to cheat in the show to make an amazing comeback? Let's go. We have the Flute of Summoning Dragon. Beautiful. Lord of the D. Hitotsumi Giant. Pet in the dark clown. And finally we have the Enraged Battle Ox. So it looks like Kaiba is going to take this one with the insane throwback nostalgia CED Ultimate Rare pull. What an amazing video. I'm super hyped up about this. If you guys have enjoyed the video, make sure to subscribe to the channel for more epic content like this. Toe Info Show, Daxter, Tomato Juice, JT Show, TCG Trusted Cards, Puffins of Doom, Ernesto D'Anda, Dizzy, Flexi Boy, Hoppus, Choice 3-3-3, Miss Cycle, Melancholy, and at his high show, Christopher Ward, Ian Moosa, John Nolan, Jr. Barting, Mike Nance, Mimic Gecko, Stanley, and Thomas McLean. Thank you guys for supporting the channel, and I'll see you guys in the next one. Peace.


And you can see the different categories for itemizing and these are the types of deductions often coming to mind when you first think about like deductions, you got the medical and dental, you got the taxes you pay like real estate taxes, you've got the interest like the mortgage interest, you've got the gifts to charity charitable contributions and casualty and other deductions down below. Now note the big thing that you're going to ask if people are going to push over from itemizing from standard to taking an itemized is the interest, whether they own a home. In other words, do they own a home? If they own a home, then they're probably got a mortgage on it. If they have a mortgage on it, then the interest on the mortgage is the big one that often pushes a lot of people over And that in conjunction and alignment with the fact that you're going to have property taxes on it as well. So the home will lead to two big items, property taxes and the mortgage interest. And if you're in a state where the homes are much more expensive type of area just because cost of living is higher like California or New York or something, then it's likely that the house is higher in terms of cost. The loans higher and then owning a home can kick people over quite easily. If you're in other parts of the country where there's reasonable prices actually for a home, then the standard deduction is such that you still could find situations where people are taking the standard deduction. And you want to really understand that because a lot of times when you talk to like real estate brokers and whatnot, they're going to, they're going to say, well, you get this big tax benefit. But we'll talk that about more of it when we get into that area. But just realize that the benefit might not be as big as you think because you have to consider the gap between your standard deduction and your itemized deduction. So although you get this big itemized deduction, if your standard deduction was pretty close to it before, you might not be getting as much of a difference than you would otherwise think and you have to actually run a tax projection to figure that out. But we'll talk more about that later. So then, so if you're, if you don't know which one they're going to be able to take, you're going to have to collect all the information. Also, if someone got into some bad medical situation, hospital bills and stuff like that, then the medical stuff in and of itself might push someone over, but there's restrictions to the AGI limitations on the medical. So that's it's usually the home that pushes people over. Okay, so let's get back to the standard deductions here. Here's the 12,950. I could double check that on my little worksheet in Excel where I put $100,000 in for the W2 wages pulling in here, no above the line items. And then the standard deduction is the 12,950. There's the 12,950 in our table. It being pulled from there. And that's going to give us then our 8750. There's our 8750. I depend on the tax software to do the calculation of the 14774. And there's the 14774. And then we had the tax payment of the 15,000 getting us to the 226. We're mainly focused here on the first half though, which is just the calculation of the income tax. Thank you very much.