Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / That’s Cheating

That’s Cheating

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Lovely:

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said he plans to tell Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

This is absolute bullshit. If everyone in the country is going to have shitty teeth, they need to do it the WV way- meth, mountain dew, smokeless tobacco, and being too poor to go to the dentist. This just feels like cheating.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    meth, mountain dew, smokeless tobacco, and being too poor to go to the dentist.

    Not necessarily in that order.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    Well, at least our Precious Bodily Fluids will no longer be Sapped and Impurified.

  4. 4.

    Jay

    4 hours between Bobby Brainworms twitting that the MRR vaccine is the most effective response, to twitting unproven drugs as “treatment’.

  8. 8.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    How long before they want to get rid of fluoride in toothpaste?

    Late last year, I had a customer, a man in 60s, come in to buy like 4 gallons of distilled water, and he mentioned how it took him forever to find a filter/filtration system that would remove the fluoride from water.

    I think I asked him why he’d want to do that. I don’t remember his answer, but I think I said there was nothing wrong with water fluoridation, no evidence it was bad, etc. He then “joked” my father must be a dentist. He’s not. WTF? Like, what does that have to do with anything?

  9. 9.

    A Ghost to Most

    They left the rules behind long ago. We tried to defeat them within the rules. Not a winnable fight. Time to play their game.

  10. 10.

    RaflW

    Speaking of cheating, the shadow docket decision tries to keep a bit of the baby while throwing the bathwater out. It’s not full on permission to smuggle people to gualgs. But too darn close.

  11. 11.

    Jay

    @twbrandt:

    Probably not, only 1:5 approve.

    When I was a child, living in an area that did not have fluoridated water, every 6 months, a gel/rubber cup fluoride treatment at the Dentist, plus a weekly, shitty tasting fluoride pills the size of a birth control pill, held under the tongue until it dissolved.

    In many Red Area’s, dental care is only available one day a year when the charity comes to town

  13. 13.

    eclare

    I am a data point.  Life with fluoridated water, one cavity.  Life without fluoridated water ( well water), six cavities.

    Those fillings are now decades old and cracking up my molars.

  14. 14.

    bbleh

    @A Ghost to Most: [evil minion] “Fluoridate him!”

    [victim] “Noooo! Not Florida!! Not that! PLEASE!!”

    [minion, exasperated] “Not Florida, fluoridation.  With fluoride!”

    [victim] “Oh thank gawd …”

  15. 15.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @RaflW

    I saw your comment in the other thread on this. Pretty disgraceful and cowardly of the SCOTUS.

    What does this mean for Kilmar Abrego Garcia? I guess somebody has to file a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf?

  16. 16.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Speaking of sociopaths (video footage through the link):

    Aaron Rupar@atrupar

    Trump: “I said to [the former hostages], was there any sign of love? Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany.”

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    This is an actual John Birch Society platform point and I dare a fucking reporter to ask Junior if he is now or has he ever been a John Birch Society member and if not, then why is he spewing JBS propaganda instead of doing his damn job?

    Fuck me sideways.

  19. 19.

    Nukular Biskits

    @A Ghost to Most:

    I gotta say that the first thought that came to mind when I read this:

    The government is snatching people off the streets and shipping them to foreign prisons from which, the government claims, they can never be extracted. All with no due process. It’s as bad as it gets. And this court is again avoiding the reality of what’s happening at all costs.

    https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social/post/3lmb6no6gdk2m

    was it would be justice to rendition several SCOTUS justices to an El Salvadoran prison.

  20. 20.

    cmorenc

    Anti-fluoridation nuts claim that fluorine is a poison – so are other common minerals and vitamins in substantial excess of what the body can usefully process.  Such as high/dose vitamin A Kennedy is quacking as a non-vaccine treatment for messles.

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    this thread is hilarious if you hate Trump and appreciate math.

    It mostly consisted of too many people being upset about the use of an asterisk as a multiplication sign. They need to get a life.

  22. 22.

    bbleh

    @trollhattan: “Birch WUT?  ‘Zat some kinda tree?”

    He might or might not know — I’m kinda thinking he’s a bit like DJT, ie Really Not At All Bright (subclass 3.2) — and in any case of the few people who knew, VERY few among his supporters would care — they might even support it!

    We cannot defeat the Stupid with silly things like facts or history.

  23. 23.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @bbleh:

    @trollhattan:

    Somebody should ask him who he thinks should go to these “wellness camps” he talks about what he thinks would/should happen if those people refused to go to them

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    @cmorenc:

    Anti-fluoridation nuts claim that fluorine is a poison – so are other common minerals and vitamins in substantial excess of what the body can usefully process.  Such as high/dose vitamin A Kennedy is quacking as a non-vaccine treatment for messles.

    Hell, if you drink enough pure water, it can be a poison. (Don’t worry, it takes waaaaaay more than the proverbial eight 8-ounce glasses per day.)

  26. 26.

    bbleh

    @cmorenc: oh ffs so in some forms or concentrations is chlorine. Nobody — our President’s recommendations notwithstanding — should inject Clorox.  OTOH, you REALLY wanna swim in an unchlorinated pool?

    If the Stupids would just kill themselves, but noooo, they have to endanger the rest of us as well

    Are we really sure about this evolution thing …

    @lowtechcyclist: few but regular cases of water toxicity every time I was at Burning Man (a very many years ago …)

  27. 27.

    opiejeanne

    Doesn’t fluoride support bone health? I’m  interested in that possibility because after I broke the 4th metatarsal in my right foot in January, I was diagnosed with significant loss of bone density. Aside from wearing a boot, I’m not being treated for it yet, I have to wait until June to see the endocrinologist.

  28. 28.

    Raoul Paste

    This could be a Saturday Night Live skit..  That’s how stupid this anti-fluoridation nonsense is.  It’s as if they are announcing these embarrassing idiocies every damn day to keep our blood pressure high.

  29. 29.

    opiejeanne

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He’s dumb. Dentists were initially opposed to fluoridation of water because they thought they wouldn’t have as many patients.

    I read that they make more with preventative dentistry.

  34. 34.

    jlowe

    A few months back, a buddy in Florida called me asking about fluoridation in drinking water. A group of solid citizens in his town was pushing to discontinue fluoridation of drinking water. They were being all shouty in a city council meeting, waving around a paper published recently in the pediatrics journal of the American Medical Association about the harm in fluoridation. He felt the anti-fluoride arguments were nonsense, but wanted to know more about this paper. For years, we worked at the same environmental consulting firm and on occasion he reaches out to me for my views on these topics (he’s the geologist, I’m the risk scientist). Here’s what I e-mailed back to him. Hopefully you find this useful. Reach out to me if you’d like to see the citations (all open access). Apologies in advance for the expert babble:

    “The anti-fluoridation folks of today are part of a long and honorable American tradition of crackpots bashing fluoridation of drinking water. In the 50s and 60s, it was the anti-communists and John Birch Society agitating that fluoridation was a commie mind-control plot. Today’s version is New Age-y bullshit wrapped around the message IT WILL HARM YOUR CHILDREN. Makes rational discussion a little difficult. Kudos to you for fighting the good fight here. My anger over matters like this has been frozen in limbo for the past several years.

    I skimmed the abstract of the paper in JAMA Pediatrics yesterday morning. It looked fine and I look forward to a closer reading of the paper. The abstract was a bit misleading though. I think what they meant to say was that for their cut-points (1.5, 2 and 4 mg/L in drinking water), intake studies and studies measuring both intake and urinary output provide consistent results. The studies measuring urinary output of fluoride are important as they reflect all sources of exposure.

    The systematic review in the paper is probably good work. It seems to follow the Federal guidelines (from the National Toxicology Program – NTP) and the paper had been prepared by NTP staff. This makes it the scientific backup for policies about fluoride (one might speculate this is a parting shot from the outgoing administration). The NTP’s website shows the work which went into it – an effort that started in 2015. It will be interesting to see how this work is used in making policy sausage.

    Where it leaves uncertainty is the fluoride risk with 0.7 mg/L, what’s used for fluoridation. It’s communicated simply as uncertain which doesn’t do much to settle the argument with regard to communities deciding whether or not to fluoridate their water. The NTP’s website seems to indicate that the high quality, low bias studies suggest no significant risk at 0.7 mg/L in drinking water but those are few in number. Whether or not this is reassuring depends somewhat on how this point gets communicated.

    I think the paper does a good job of informing pediatricians about how much of an IQ drop occurs with fluoride exposure but only touches briefly on the effects on human cognition. They were probably wise to stay out of the intellectual morass about IQ and how well or not it reflects human learning and behavior. From skimming it, my impression is that in the absence of other symptoms of fluorosis such as brown mottling of teeth, fluoride in diet or water probably isn’t harming your child’s brain that much (lead exposure and cellphone use are probably worse, by comparison).

    I really don’t see a policy solution to this problem, though here’s an idea: as mentioned above, experts only think there’s no harm with fluoridation because the available studies are too small and too few. The communities which are pushing back on drinking water fluoridation represent a control (no exposure) group for a sufficiently large natural experiment on the effects of low-dose fluoride. The study would require about 10-15 years to complete (protocol development and human subjects testing approvals; data collection; and data analysis, peer review and publication. But, at the end you might have a database which can be the basis for sensible policy on fluoridation.”

    So much for sensible policy. Enjoy the sausage.

  40. 40.

    Suzanne

    So earlier this evening, I was driving to yoga class after work, which takes me by the Social Security office in the bougie, very white suburb of Mt. Lebanon. There was a protest! About 50-75 people, most of whom looked to be about 50-75, with cute homemade signs.:) I didn’t know it was happening, but had I known, I would have taken SuzMom. Anyway, I honked loudly for them and cheered and thumbs-upped.

    My favorite sign read: EVEN MELANIA HATES YOU.

  41. 41.

    Harrison Wesley

    Fluoride? Who needs fluoride? Perhaps a little oil of cloves…..Is it safe?

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    @opiejeanne: I’ve been in treatment for osteopenia (the precursor to osteoporosis) for years and no one has ever brought up fluoride.

    Calcium though, in conjunction with Vitamin D and magnesium, helps your body build back bone. You can buy combo pills or gummies in the vitamin section of the store, you might as well get a head start and start taking it now.

    Have you considered calling the endocrinologist’s office and asking to put on cancellation list, in case there is a last minute open appointment?

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    Last year there was a British stage adaptation of “Dr. Strangelove” starring Steve Coogan in all the Peter Sellers roles, plus Major Kong the bomber captain (who Sellers originally planned on playing, but was sidelined by an injury, resulting in the immortal casting of Slim Pickens). He had to spend a lot of his time just doing instant costume changes.

    Coincidentally, we just saw it yesterday in a (pre-recorded) “National Theatre Live” showing in Portsmouth. It was pretty good–I think the bomber scenes were the only real weakness, since that was difficult to really carry off on stage and Coogan was less able to play an over-the-top cowboy redneck than his other roles. John Hopkins did a decent job channeling Sterling Hayden as General Ripper, the fluoridation conspiracist.

  45. 45.

    Suzanne

    @Ohio Mom: SuzMom also has osteopenia, which is part of why her hip surgeries were not awesome. Her doctor recommended the calcium + D3. Also gentle resistance exercise….. resistance bands and 1-pound free weights and the like.

  46. 46.

    They Call Me Noni

    While RFK Jr. is just this hot minute pushing measle vaccines part of his NIH cuts caused the Dallas area to fire 21 employees and cancel multiple vaccination clinics.  It is beyond cruel.

  48. 48.

    Scout211

    @opiejeanne: @Ohio Mom:

    There is some research that associates long term fluoridated water with healthier bones but it’s only one factor among many factors that can either help or harm bone health.

    Not many of those trump being female and being post-menopausal.

    Ohio Mom mentioned supplements  you can take right now that could help.

    I was in osteopenia for probably 20 years and now I am in osteoporosis and taking yearly Reclast infusions.  They typically start you on oral meds like Fosamax but I had side effects. The infusions have really helped and my bone density numbers have improved.

    Lifestyle factors like long-term use of oral steroids, smoking and poor diet are causal factors. Calcium-rich foods and weight bearing exercises are helpful.

    But being a post-menopausal female is the most common causal factor. Sigh.

    ETA:  I agree with Ohio Mom.  See if you can get in on a cancellation to your endocrinologist.

    But your primary care doctor can order a bone density scan (Dexa Scan) right now.  Medicare will pay for it and you can bring the report to your endocrinologist and that will save time.

  50. 50.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Straight up late stage empire syndrome, Mafia style:

    Steve Hou (Consume Less Involuntarily)@stevehou0

    CEA chairman @SteveMiran provides options of “burden sharing” for the costly stabilizing role America plays in enforcing the global order. This is *a* clear articulation of how the admin sees itself as not so much abandoning as much as reforming the Pax Americana global order.

    “What forms can that burden sharing take? There are many options, here are a few ideas:

    First, other countries can accept tariffs on their exports to the United States without retaliation, providing revenue to the U.S.Treasury to finance public goods provision.Critically, retaliation will exacerbate rather than improve the distribution of burdens and make it even more difficult for us to finance global public goods.

    Second, they can stop unfair and harmful trading practices by opening their markets and buying more from America;

    Third, they can boost defense spending and procurement from the U.S., buying more U.S.-made goods, and taking strain off our servicemembers and creating jobs here;

    Fourth, they can invest in and install factories in America. They won’t face tariffs if they make their stuff in this country;

    Fifth, they could simply write checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods.”

    Leaning in to extract more rent from the ROW, but unwilling & unable to perform the empire/global order maintenance. Why would anyone in the ROW sign up for that?

    & some among MAGA circles are dreaming that Trump can leverage threatening access to the US consumer market to coerce the ROW into economically decouple from the PRC. Clearly they do not know that the PRC is a larger trade partner for the vast majority of the world than the US, & for the Global South a more significant source of financing, investment, & knowledge/tech transfer, gaps for which the US is no longer able or willing (certainly not MAGA) to fill. The Sino-Centric pan-Asia supply chain took decades to build, & it will not shift overnight. The global (including the US) economy will seize up long before supply chains can be reconfigured, especially as the PRC has dominance or even monopoly in critical sectors. High inflation, regulatory schizophrenia & economic recession will also decrease the weigh of the US consumer demand, anyway.

    I mentioned this before, but the vast majority of value of imported goods (design, IP, marketing, some of the high end components) consumed by US consumers are still created in the US, employing well compensated American white collar workers, & value primarily accrued to American shareholders. The value added of an iPhone assembled in the PRC & exported to the US is 10%. The value added of a pair of Nike sneakers made in Vietnam & exported to the US is not much higher.

    Countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Zimbabwe are offering zero for zero tariff deal proposals to the US, because they import very little from the US & sell a lot. Unsurprisingly, Trump Administration officials have already shot those down, because they want balance bilateral trade in goods, not tariff reduction on US exports. The EU offered zero for zero tariff on industrial goods only, because the EU export a lot more of those to the US than the other way around, Navarro/Lutnick will not accept that.

    Then there is the matter that the US runs large surpluses in the trade of services, especially in tourism, education & finance, & Trumpian misrule is rapidly dismantling the foundations for US comparative advantage in these areas.

  51. 51.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Elizabelle: I can only assume Trump is talking about how [in his imagination] the Nazis gave the Jews in concentration camps extra meals on the side.

  55. 55.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @YY_Sima Qian: BTW, a lot of Americans (not just MAGA) have not updated their impressions of the PRC economy since the mid-’00s. Exports account for 19.7% of the PRC’s GDP, which is lower than the global average. Exports to the US is < 3% of the PRC’s GDP, & net exports (trade surplus) to the US < 2%. Even accounting for rerouting of exports to the US through 3rd countries, the numbers are unlikely to double. If we account for the service trade deficit the PRC has w/ the US, as well as the imbalance in FDI income between US corporations in the PRC & Chinese corporations in the US, the balance of payments surplus is probably < 0.5% of PRC GDP.

    Furthermore, it is much easier for the PRC government to stimulate domestic demand to fill the gap left by lost US demand (it has been keeping its powders dry since the end of the pandemic for this scenario), than it is for the US to find alternative suppliers to PRC’s manufactured goods.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    @Harrison Wesley:

    Probably not.

    The new chant will be I paid into UI, why can’t I get it.

    Back in the late 80’s. the UAW took a run at our Milwaukee factory. I was on the MGMT committee. They got a 55% sign up, because reasons.

    Their open offer was $17.70 hour for basic, 80% benefits.

    Our response, made clear to the card holders and the UAW was, okay, you want a $2 dollar cut in starting wages and a 20% cut in benefits. Okay.

    The reality was that the floor staff felt dissed, unlistened to.

    So, we started listening.

  57. 57.

    am

    Not gonna lie, and no defense of the weirdo RFK, but it feels more that the meth is cheating.

  58. 58.

    Jackie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    @Suzanne: So, just about everything makes you a woman except deciding that you are a woman.

    Ain’t that the truth!

    And NOMINATED!

    Also watching The Game – rooting for Houston. Both teams are fraught with nerves and playing poorly. 31-28 halftime.

  62. 62.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Suzanne:

    Fox News calls them “Trump’s Manly Tariffs“, and Jesse Watters says, “When you sit behind a screen all day, it makes you a woman”.

    I’m so tired.

    Uh, doesn’t Jesse Watters basically do that too? Sit in front of screens all day? He’s an on-air “news” personality making 7 figures a year if not more. Basically, a white-collar desk job. It’s not like he’s a mechanic working on cars at the jiffy-lube or anything lmao

  63. 63.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Looking up Jesse Watters Wikipedia page is a real trip:

    During a broadcast on 8 January 2025, Watters expressed a desire for a military invasion of Canada amidst the backdrop of United States Presidential nominee Donald Trump’s comments about turning Canada into America’s 51st state. He stated: “Canada… the fact that they don’t want us to take them over makes me want to invade. I want to quench my imperialist thirst”. During an interview with Ontario premier Doug Ford, Watters said, “You say that Americans don’t have a problem with Canadians, and we don’t, but it seems like you have a problem with us. Because if I were a citizen of another country and I was a neighbor of the United States, I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America. That’s what everybody else in the world wants — American citizenship. For some reason, that’s repellant to you Canadians, and I find that personally offensive”.

    This guy is either a troll or a total fascist psychopath. I’m sure the German fascists said similar things about the nations they annexed in the interwar period and later invaded during WW2

  66. 66.

    Peale

    @YY_Sima Qian: I’m so glad we put that 100% tariff on electric cars to give us space to develop our own industry. And that the US car manufacturers prudently spent their time when supply chains were interrupted investing in more efficient manufacturing plants rather than doing what they usually do when profits are high and take on more debt so they can have larger stock buy backs.

  67. 67.

    Peale

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I mean, look, unlike Mexico who we will never invite to be in the club because we like to pretend that they are alien species at best, one step above terrestrial beasts on average, we actually desire the white people to join into a union with us. We’ve been stalking them for years and yet they still think they are better than us. They aren’t getting any younger, you know. They shouldn’t be so picky.

  69. 69.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Another harebrained idea coming down the lane:

    Ryan Petersen@typesfast
    On April 17th the U.S. Trade Representative’s office is expected to impose fees of up to $1.5M per port call for ships made in China and for $500k to $1M if the ocean carrier owns a single ship made in China or even has one on order from a Chinese shipyard. 🧵
    1/Ocean carriers have announced that to reduce the fees they will skip the smaller ports like Seattle, Oakland, Boston, Mobile, Baltimore, New Orleans, etc.
    Some carriers have said they’ll just move the capacity serving the U.S. to other trade lanes altogether. /2
    This would be horrible for jobs in and around those ports, and really bad for companies, both importers and exporters, using those ports. Huge extra costs will be incurred as trucks and trains run hundreds of extra miles to the main ports on each cost. 3/
    Similarly the major ports (LA, Long Beach, Houston, and New York) will be unable to keep up with the flood of extra volumes and are likely to become congested, similar to what we saw during Covid. 4/
    The craziest part of the original proposal is a requirement that within 7 years 15% of U.S. exports must travel on a ship that’s made in America and crewed by Americans. 5/
    There are only 23 of American made and crewed container ships in the world today, and they all service domestic ocean freight (Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc). They’re all tiny compared to today’s mega ships, and they’re not even sailing to overseas ports. 6/
    The U.S. did not produce any container ships in 2024. And the number we produce in any given year rounds to zero. The reason is that American made container ships of 3,000 TEUs cost the same price as the modern container ships from China of 24,000 TEUs. 7/
    One shipyard in China made more commercial ships last year than the total number the U.S. has produced since World War Two. 8/
    During East Asia’s successful industrialization, their government’s required the manufacturing sectors to produce goods for export, it wasn’t enough just to produce for their domestic markets. 9/
    This was how they could prove that they were actually building globally competitive companies and products. If nobody wanted to import their goods, they knew that they weren’t actually building successful companies. 10/
    As the Trump Administration pursues the noble goal of re-industrializing the United States, passing a pass a rule simultaneously that limits U.S. exports as a function of American made ships—ships that today that will hamstring exporters would be a true self-own. 11/
    Given what just happened with the new tariffs tanking global equities markets, it would be crazy for the USTR to go through with this rule. If we want the U.S. to be competitive in global manufacturing, we need world-class port infrastructure and logistics connectivity. /12
    In the meantime, U.S. manufacturers who have just had massive new tariffs placed on components and machinery sourced from abroad should brace themselves for impact because all indications are that this rule is coming on April 17th.  /end

    MAGA wants stagflation. This rules does not just affect direct imports from the PRC, which is soon to drop precipitously due to the new tariffs, but all imports into the US.

  70. 70.

    Peale

    @Suzanne: Its like they can’t pick a position on sex and gender. I thought I was told that sex was immutable and based on biology and hard science, none of this non-binary, socially constructed, fluid ideology.

    Its like that survey from the other month where they are convinced that 40% of the country has become transgendered and I wonder where the hell they live. But then they do sit in front of screens all day and where they aren’t they listen to podcasts and while based on biology and hard science, none of that alters sex OR gender in any way, what it does is convince you that you’re the only straight male for 50 miles around.

  71. 71.

    Peale

    @YY_Sima Qian: I have to admit, though, if I’m going to lose my sit down job and be reassigned to real work, joining the merchant marine is probably a little better than putting little screws into iPhones. Not much. Not really a career that one should start in one’s late 50s. But still, at least its kind of an outdoor job.

  72. 72.

    Peale

    @YY_Sima Qian: I’m also going to guess that this rule is being floated around to take a swipe and Mrs. Mitch McConnel’s family fortune for him daring to break ranks briefly about tariffs.

  73. 73.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Peale: Living conditions aboard container vessels absolutely suck, & there is no workplace protection. See how governments treated crew members of stranded ships in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  74. 74.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Peale: The implosion in US imports due to the tariffs & tariff given inflation will also kneecap whatever leverage this rule might have had.

  75. 75.

    Peale

    @YY_Sima Qian: Its also very dangerous work. But then I could see myself spending years and years toiling away screwing iPhones, while I might not be able to make a single voyage without messing up so badly that the crew maroons me on some tropical island in the Pacific. That’s what I’m going to shoot for. Abandoned. Alone. With maybe a volleyball for a friend.

  76. 76.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Andrew Robb is from the conservative Liberal Party in Australia (link):

    James Laurenceson 罗震 @j-laurenceson.bsky.social@j_laurenceson

    Former Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb with a big idea that in response to US tariffs Canberra should initiate the linking up of RCEP and CPTPP. https://theaustralian.com.au/commentary/begging-for-concessions-legitimises-trumps-illegal-tariffs/news-story/7a9d4915b4f2f2ab7304b6698a3cf90f
    Hear Andrew Robb tonight reflect on the ChAFTA deal he clinched in 2015.
    https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2025/04/china-australia-free-trade-agreement-chafta-australian-assessment-core-outcomes-decade-on

  77. 77.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Peale: BTW, Bessent said out loud that the laid off federal government employees make for a ready workforce for the assembly of electronic gadgets…

  79. 79.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @NotMax: LOL!

    Fresh creations by Chinese netizens using AI (video through the link):

    Gabor Gurbacs@gaborgurbacs

    Chinese memes on American re-industrialization rolling in. lol the music.

  80. 80.

    YY_Sima Qian

    The right assessment, although missing 25% tariff for purchasing Venezuelan oil:

    David Lee@DavidLe76335983

    US current tariff is already over 60% (14-20% in Jan 2025 + 2×10% + 34%). If China can be competitive at this tariff, there is something wrong. So, current tariff already mean US is not going to import anything from China, adding tariff to 500000000% doesn’t change anything.

    The fact that Trump threatens 50% is that he has no other viable card. Can he kick China off SWIFT? What will be the impact of USD. Can he freeze China UST holding? How will the world see UST? These will be much worse than sanction against Russia and the reaction will be much worse

    At this point, China has not even sanction any U.S. service sector which has trade surplus against China.

    This shows the different positions in this chess game

    There will be pain in the PRC from the decoupling, but the CPC regime’s calculation is that the PRC can easily outlast the U.S., while the U.S. isolates itself, & I think they are correct in this assessment.

  83. 83.

    prostratedragon

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    Related?

    Trump: “You know how I feel about the Gaza Strip. I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate. And I think it’s something that we would be involved in. Having a peace force like the US there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing … you call it the Freedom Zone.”

  84. 84.

    MrPug

    I’m still eagerly looking forward to the directive from the Ag Secretary that all crops should be “watered” with Brawndo.  JFC this country.

  88. 88.

    RevRick

    @Suzanne: One sign of insanity is being devoid of emotions…or really claiming to be, because how does one function, let alone live, without love, joy, wonder, hope, fear, anger, despair?

  90. 90.

    Chris T.

    @opiejeanne:

    Doesn’t fluoride support bone health?

    As far as I know, it has neither good nor bad effects on bone in general. What fluoride does for teeth specifically is special to teeth.

    As you all know from whatever source, teeth have “enamel” on them, a thin layer of extra-hard minerals. The geological term for this stuff is, in some sort of weird dental joke perhaps, “apatite” (not appetite, that’s different!). Technically it’s “hydroxyapatite” since it contains water molecules embedded in the crystals.

    Anyway, apatite (wikipedia link) is a calcium-phosphate mineral mix. Replacing some (not too many!) of the mix of various impurities with fluorine produces hydroxyfluoroapatite, which is more acid-resistant than plain hydroxyapatite. So fluoridated tooth enamel stands up better to bacterial attack, since the bacterial attack uses an acid-etch to gain entry.

    Upon observing that naturally fluoridated ground water resulted in fewer cavities, researchers eventually figured this all out. Adding a bit of fluoridation to the water supply—again, it’s important not to go overboard here—results in sturdier teeth.

    Now, there are a lot of ways to add fluoride. The more expensive ones tend to be better on average, and cities tend to use the cheaper ones, which isn’t that great, but also isn’t that terrible. The only real danger from typical over-fluoridation is tooth discoloration: with enough fluorine, hydroxyfluoroapatite is kind of grey-ish rather than pearly-looking.

    Some of the fluoridation agents added to some city water are, however, pretty toxically concentrated levels of fluoride. This might alarm casual observers who don’t realize that 10-million-to-1 dilution really changes things….

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