A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
Dr. Anthony Fauci testified before the Senate in the GOP's hyperpartisan investigation into his "megalomania" and alleged mishandling of Covid, despite the fact that Trump admitted to having “a lot of respect for Dr. Fauci” during the pandemic. Jordan Klepper gets into the hearing’s biggest moments, including Fauci repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment, Senator Josh Hawley invoking Fauci’s diary entries, and one Instagram commenter invoking the eggplant emoji.
I'll get back to Brainworm later. Time to return to the hearing and its coverage on Fox News, which is all in on "the Wuhan lab-leak hypothesis." I last discussed that in 2021 and have ignored it since, as I don't want to contribute to the acceptance of what I think is a conspiracy theory. That isn't stopping the Fox News anchors or their guests, particularly ex-coach, current Senator, and likely future Governor Tommy Tuberville, who, if he wants to cite one unofficial idea, might as well cite another, "16 million to 28.1 million with the most likely figure being 21 million, 3.1 times the total of official deaths." It would scare people even more than 9 million and it has better support than the lab-leak hypothesis, which I think is based on xenophobia, partisan wishful thinking, and a questionable intelligence report not supported by scientists. It doesn't help that Fox News undercuts that position by their consistent underplaying of COVID-19. Logic and reason are not their strong suit, but I wrote that the late Jerry Pournelle, himself a conservative, described conservatives as irrational fifteen years ago, so I shouldn't be surprised.
I couldn't agree more that staff cuts at Health and Human Services, the CDC, and NIH are among the reasons the U.S. is "losing a diarrhea war with lettuce." That deserves its own post, but not today. Instead, I'm moving on to Desi Lydic Foxsplains Anthony Fauci's Pandemic Diary | The Daily Show.
Fox News got a hold of Anthony Fauci's Covid-era diary, and Desi Lydic is ready to Foxsplain every evil detail.
HAHAHAHA! All except the lettuce being from Michigan — that hits too close to home, literally.
America might be getting sick of RFK Jr. as health secretary, but much like the worm in his brain, he doesn't appear to be going anywhere. While you won't find his brand of non-professional medical advice on "Grey's Anatomy" or "The Pitt," you can find it on a bold new medical drama: RFK Hospital.
On the one hand, HAHAHAHA! On the other, this is the kind of health care leader Fauci's enemies want to listen to. I'd rather follow Fauci.
Speaking of following, continue over the jump for The Daily Show's Emmy nominations.
John Oliver discusses how an already flawed Twitter got worse under Elon Musk, how it continues to impact us all, and what it has to do with the 30-40 trillion cells humans are composed of. Or, wait, sorry, Twitter doesn’t have anything to do with the cells. It’s about our understanding of the universe. Maybe. You’ll just have to take that last part up with Elon directly.
There's a side effect of Musk turning the blue checks into pay for play instead of an actual verification system. In addition to making it difficult to tell real from imitation/parody accounts, it made a lot of statistics inaccessible without paid verification. I noted that last year: "Twitter/X's analytics are now a service for paid subscribers, and I won't pay to support Elon Musk, so they end up being little better than what I can collect from Bluesky for free."
Since today is Throwback Thursday, follow over the jump for my most read post about Twitter/X and Bluesky during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News along with my top shares on each platform that aren't about holidays that I haven't shared yet.
John Oliver discusses J.D. Vance, what he really believes, who he is without Donald Trump, and – most importantly – what he looks like without a beard.
Vance's opportunism and misogyny shine right through this satirical biography. As for Hillbilly Elegy, it's one of the rare films that earned both Oscar and Razzie nominations. While I'm not sure about Glenn Close's Razzie nomination (fortunately, she didn't win), I am sure about Worst Screenplay, which earned Vanessa Taylor, but not Vance, a nomination. I think leaving Vance off the nomination was an oversight.
John Oliver certainly had something to say about Hillbilly Elegy, including Glenn Close's Razzie nomination; maybe she did deserve it, although I'm still glad she didn't win. As for Vance's opportunism, that shines through even brighter. On the other hand, different bigotries eclipse his misogyny, especially racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, never mind that Vance's wife Usha is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Vance would be less erratic (mercurial would be a polite way of saying it) and not driven by Hoover Cleveland's obsessions with tariffs, grifts, and revenge, but he'd be more likely to implement the parts of Project 2025 that Hoover Cleveland hasn't yet. He'd also be more under the influence of Palantir founder Peter Thiel, his pet bad philosopher Curtis Yarvin, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. They're the sources of what I called "cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash..." Vance can certainly learn new tricks, but I worry about the ones Thiel, Yarvin, and Karp could teach him. They might be worse.
As for Trump AKA Hoover Cleveland repeating the fiction of Haitian immigrants eating pets, it's another example of his vulnerability toconspiracy theories. He still hasn't learned that the voices he's listening to aren't reliable sources. This includes JD Vance.
That hasn't stopped Hoover Harding Cleveland from listening to them.
As for the meme with JD Vance making love to a couch, it reminds me that there is a game called Date Everything! Everything includes a couch named Koa, and there is already a meme of it/him with Vance.
A comedy sketch about Vance wouldn't be complete without a couch joke!
White House Border Czar Tom Homan (Pete Davidson) meets with ICE agents (Kenan Thompson, James Austin Johnson, Mikey Day, Ben Marshall, Andrew Dismukes, Jeremy Culhane) in Minneapolis.
This is only the second time I've mentioned Tom Homan, responsible for familyseparation and caught on camera taking $50,000 in a fast-foot restaurant bag, the first being two days ago. He's certainly making a splash replacing Greg Bovino, who I've never mentioned here before and hope never to do so in another entry unless it's about any legal troubles he might face. Speaking of legal trouble, I watched the incident involving Don Lemon, who I haven't cited since 2021, and he was just doing his job; he wasn't one of the protestors. The feds arresting him is turning him into a hero of the Resistance, if he isn't already.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the FBI investigating Trump’s false claim the 2020 election was rigged.
Donald Trump is a self-help apostle. He always has tried to create his own reality by saying what he wants to be true. Where many see failure, Trump sees only success, and expresses it out loud, again and again.
His wish might just come true. This works on the social environment, but not the physical and biological environment; it failed to work on the virus during the pandemic. He couldn't bully a virus.
But he can bully the Department of Justice, particularly with Pam Bondi in charge. This is on top of his positive thinking reinforcing the Big Lie.
Personally, I'd rather call it Trump's dangerous delusion, his fixed belief that the election was stolen from him despite allevidence, which I see as related to his vulnerabilitytoconspiracy theories, but "the Big Lie" is the established phrase used by CNBC and others, so I'm calling it that instead. It's a lie, too.
Mayer's reporting shows that Trump's delusion is not just dangerous but contagious. It's bad enough that there is one pandemic running around; we don't need another.
The delusion has continued to spread, infecting a lot of candidates in today's elections. Ugh.
And now he has an Administration dedicated to it.
The first segment mentioned the Melania documentary, which alone qualifies this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature, but Kanye West made a cameo in Luigi Mangione Won’t Face Death Penalty, cementing its status.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like Ye publishing an apology in The Wall Street Journal.
"Unless you have a pre-existing condition" would be funnier if it weren't so true.
Follow over the jump for the rest of last night's highlights.
President Trump sent the military to Oregon after seeing a misleading report on Fox News and indicated that everyone in America will soon have access to futuristic medical technology, while the indictment of James Comey represents a chilling escalation of Trump's efforts to punish his political enemies.
I'm starting with the last story, since the other comedians I'm featuring didn't cover it. The game of musical chairs Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump has been playing with the lawyers in the Department of Justice reminds me of what I wrote in Noah, Meyers, Colbert, and Kimmel mock Trump's lawyers for his second impeachment trial: "Trump doesn't want to listen to his lawyers. He wants lawyers who listen to him. He should be careful what he wishes for. I think he's getting them, and they're not that good." I think he cares more that they're good looking and obedient than if they're competent. That means his lawfare is unlikely to result in convictions.
After a string of mass shootings across the U.S., America swaps out “thoughts and prayers” for a left vs. right blame game, Republicans hypocritically criticize the Democrats' “violent rhetoric,” and Trump escalates a nonexistent problem by deploying troops to Portland.
"Why Portland?" Because Hoover Cleveland was watching Fox News showing clips from 2020, not today. The preview image I had for Seeker explains how television entertainment can shape our political opinions and need to replace showed Hoover Cleveland saying "I learn a lot from television." Yeah, and a lot of it is wrong.
That concludes September's blogging. Stay tuned for the first post of October.
Jon Stewart tracks Elon Musk's White House crash, from the high of being Trump's "first buddy" to the low of his black-eyed DOGE send-off. Now that the 100-day honeymoon is over, Jon also checks in on Trump's other struggling cabinet members, like the FBI's burned-out deputy director, Dan Bongino.
Sen. Joni Ernst horrified constituents with a heartless comment about people who will lose Medicaid coverage under the GOP’s budget bill, Elon Musk denied reports that he is a heavy user of ketamine and psychedelics, and President Trump reposted a wild conspiracy theory about his predecessor.
Greer's premise/conceit is that Trump is like The King in Yellow and drives mad all who oppose him. I'd say he drives just about everyone mad by giving them permission to be their worst selves.
I'd say Senator Ernst succumbed to the curse. May the rest of us not follow suit.
I'm moving past Elon Musk's alleged drug use to Hoover Cleveland's re-"truthed" kooky claim that Joe Biden was replaced by a "robot clone" in 2020. As Stephen points out, robots are not clones, and the imagined replacement would have been worse than the original, both of which remind me of one of the lines in The Way of the (Political) K00K, "Never allow logic or reason get in the way of a good k00k." It also shows Hoover Cleveland's vulnerability to conspiracy theories. I wrote that in 2017 and repeated it immediately before the election. The old dog, and by that I mean Trump and not Biden, is still performing his old tricks.
Seth takes a closer look at President Trump reposting a far-right conspiracy theory that former President Biden was executed five years ago and is a robotically engineered clone, The New York Times reporting that Elon Musk was engaged in increasingly intense drug use during the Trump campaign and more.
Here's a term Seth could have found in his thesaurus to characterize the week's news, dystopian. That would have covered it.
Elon Musk is out of the White House and Trump held a farewell press conference for him, Elon had a mysterious black eye, the New York Times published a crazy story about him claiming that he has been taking a wide variety of drugs, Trump blew the lid off a bombshell cover-up by reposting a theory claiming that Biden was cloned and replaced by a robot, he took time over the weekend to weigh in on whether or not he would pardon Diddy, reality TV stars Todd & Julie Chrisley are already back to shooting their show after Trump pardoned them, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst had a town hall in Butler over the weekend where she told her constituents we’re all going to die, Stephen Miller was on Lara Trump’s show over the weekend where he took a rare break from deporting children to talk about his own, and while many Americans are now buying food on credit, some companies are trying to capitalize on that desperation.
The Truth Social user Hoover Cleveland re-"truthed" is even more confused than I thought. While there is a football player named Michael Robinson, he went to Penn State, played for the 49ers and Seahawks in the NFL, and is now an analyst for the NFL Network. That's not who I think the original poster meant. Instead, I think he meant Michelle Obama's brother, Craig Robinson, who was the men's basketball coach at Oregon State from 2008 to 2014, when Michelle was First Lady. Wow, they were in two places with two identities at the same time! Explain that, conspiracy theorist, while maintaining they're the same person. They're not.
The former president pushed back against Trump’s claim that he is a robot clone of himself.
*Snork*
On a more serious note, there is a method behind the madness of Hoover Cleveland spreading this. It's an even more bonkers version of Biden using an autopen to sign pardons for Hunter Biden and others. "That wasn't really Biden" would be even more effective than "Biden didn't actually sign the pardons" — if it were true. It's not, not that it being BS will stop Hoover Cleveland.
Stay tuned to see what I write tomorrow. Maybe it will be the results of the primary elections in New Jersey and Virginia, which could be good news. I hope so.
Happy June and happy Sunday! As I promised yesterday, I'm kicking off the month by examining the nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary as the Sunday entertainment feature because Alex Jones is as much an entertainment story as he is a legal one.
The American Experience episode "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earned three nominations at the News & Doc Emmy Awards and technically leads The Truth vs. Alex Jones with two nominations, but the situation mirrors the field for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary because The Truth vs. Alex Jones's other nomination is for Best Documentary, which balances out "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earning nominations for Outstanding Writing – Documentary and Outstanding Direction – Documentary in my handicapping, so both are tied in my book. The other nominees in this category, Cult Massacre: One Day In Jonestown, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, and Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, have only this one nomination.
In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.
POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families.
When I first started teaching environmental science, one of the lab exercises was to watch a video about Love Canal and fill out a worksheet. That assignment disappeared the next time I taught the class, but the memory stuck with me. I'm too close to the end of my career and the actual episode is a touch too long to show in class, but I will definitely recommend this to my students for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
Survivors and eyewitnesses tell the immersive story of Jim Jones' idealistic organization's final hours that spiraled into a mass casualty event. Watch Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown on Hulu!
Connecting this documentary to 9/11: One Day in America indicates both its pedigree and how this could easily have been a nominee for Outstanding Historical Documentary (same with "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal"). Doing so would have put it in direct competition with Tsunami: Race Against Time, also by the same team, and I don't think they, Hulu, and National Geographic would have appreciated that. It's better off here, although I'd be surprised if that allows it to win this category.
A mother discovers the daughter she gave up for adoption many years ago has disappeared—and she will stop at nothing to find her. INTO THE FIRE: THE LOST DAUGHTER, directed by Ryan White and produced by Charlize Theron, comes to Netflix September 12.
"[P]roduced by Charlize Theron" — Theron is no stranger to true crime, having won an Oscar for portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
To stop serial killers you need to think like one. Follow FBI specialist Dr. Ann Burgess as she explores the minds of notorious murderers in the new series Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, premiering on July 11.
From award-winning executive producers Dakota and Elle Fanning and critically acclaimed collaborators comes “Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer,” a fascinating new perspective on the woman whose crime hunting innovations changed history. To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one. With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial-killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims which puts her at the center of America’s most infamous true-crime cases. From the widely known Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy to lesser-known cases like the Ski Mask Rapist, Burgess investigates and studies the damaged psyches of victims and their attackers, putting two halves of the same story together to catch a killer. Largely an unsung heroine until now, Dr.Burgess impacted not only the FBI, she also radically championed the plight of women in America.
As a fan of the prematurely canceled Mindhunter and run extended on streaming Criminal Minds, I'm glad to see the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Units receiving the documentary treatment they deserve. Also, Dakota Fanning is familiar with historical crime, having played one of the detectives in The Alienist, while her sister Elle, better known for playing Catherine the Great in TheGreat, also portrayed a defendant in a movie about true crime, The Girl from Plainville. Together, that puts them on the same level as Charlize Theron. Those credentials might have impressed the Television Academy if their documentaries had been nominated at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, but I'm not so sure they will be enough to convince the documentarians and journalists here. As I usually write when I cover awards shows, electorates matter.
For the first time in this series, I'm examining the nominees for Best Documentary. I've been holding off because the category has nine nominees this year. The Grab leads with four nominations, followed by American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders and Mammals with three each, Hollywood Black, The Sixth, and The Truth vs. Alex Jones, all with two, and The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles with just this one. The Grab and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders are facing off for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, The Sixth leads the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, The Truth vs. Alex Jones is contending with Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, and Mammals leads the rest of the field without a subject area nomination. That's four more opportunities to examine the nominees, after which I'll make my call.
Right now, I have The Grab in first, but I'm not making a final call until I write about the rest of the nominees.
I still think The Grab is first, but I'll change or solidify my choice after I write about Mammals.
Follow over the jump for the craft categories in which Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal earned nominations.
Elon Musk’s time as a Special Government Employee has come to end, the court of International Trade ruled unanimously that Trump did not have the authority to implement the big, beautiful tariffs he slapped on everyone, Trump blew up at a reporter for asking about his new nickname “TACO” that’s been making the rounds on Wall Street which stands for “Trump Always Chickening Out,” he is now reportedly one step closer to settling the ridiculous lawsuit he filed against 60 minutes, he now says he plans to give Russia “two weeks” to prove they are serious about a peace deal with Ukraine, America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani wore a crazy outfit, FBI Director Kash Patel sat for an interview with Fox News, RFK Jr made an announcement about COVID vaccines and Cousin Micki teaches us where babies come from.
I'm glad "Elon Musk's...Chainsaw Massacre of our federal workforce" is finally over. It was even worse than I expected from Project 2025, and that was bad enough. I don't think Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump is done with tariffs, but the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling is good news. So is the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) meme taking off — something stuck! As for sore winner Hoover Cleveland suing CBS over the 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris, it earned a News & Doc Emmy nomination for Outstanding Edited Interview. I will take great pleasure in repeating that when I get to the news categories in my coverage of those awards.
Jimmy Kimmel is deep down the Rabbit Hole again digging through history to prove that Donald Trump is more than he seems.
Trump is a man out of time, but that's just because he's learned very few new tricks since the 1980s. Just the same, Kimmel and his writers found an amusing set of coincidences.
Jimmy Kimmel explores The Rabbit Hole into the most enigmatic man on the planet and discovers that Elon Musk is hiding two small things with huge implications.
I'm pleasantly surprised ABC's Standards and Practices allowed this to air, not because of what it says about Elon Musk, but what it shows about animal sex. Cue the Bloodhound Gang!
Emmy voting season is upon us and Jimmy finds it a little odd that Seth would come here to try and score a nomination when they’re competing in the same category. Jimmy had no choice but to take action.
Those got a little too personal for my taste, but they were still hilarious.
This concludes May's blogging. Stay tuned for an examination of the nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary as the Sunday entertainment feature to kick off June.
John Oliver discusses the recent deportations by the Trump administration, the conditions in the facility people are being sent to abroad, and why even Henry Winkler could be in danger of being expelled from the U.S. Yeah, even national treasure Henry Winkler.
Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump insisting that the photoshopped "MS-13" on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's hand is real reminds me of what I've written before, "the voices in his head are not reliable sources. Neither are the real people he listens to." All of them are advocating for "speed, volume, and spectacle" in the service of "the crueltyis the point." All of them, especially Hoover Cleveland, have gotten worse this time around. This includes going after citizens, mistakenly or not, and denying due process to those targeted for deportation. As Oliver said, this is an outrage.
John Oliver discusses the budget and staffing cuts being made to public health agencies in the U.S. under RFK Jr.’s new leadership, the many ways those cuts will impact all of us, and how WWII really ended. Trust us, it’s not how you think.
I'm repeating what I wrote earlier this month: "If I have to concentrate on criticizing any of Trump's Cabinet Secretaries, it will be RFK Jr. I'm a scientist and he's the biggest threat to science of anyone actually confirmed by the Senate..." I don't find his statement that "Our purpose is not to reduce any level of scientific research that is important" reassuring. I don't trust his judgment of what's scientifically important, especially in the context of cutting funding to diabetes research at the University of Michigan. That's doublypersonal!
Oliver and his writers also demonstrated how cuts at and by HHS pose short- and long-term threats to health. Bird flu and measles, both of which Oliver addresses later in the video, come to mind on top of the example of lead paint. It's not just in drinking water!
Vox showed its viewers how RFK Jr. could mess things up. Oliver shows how he already is. As Oliver quoted the experts, "This is a disaster. People will die because of the mistakes we're making right now." I'm calling for his impeachment and removal, because I'm sure he won't resign and doubt Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump will fire him because of what he's doing to science and public health.* Hoover Cleveland will only do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Even so, that will take until 2027 because the House won't have a Democratic majority until then. Sigh.
Stay tuned for Wayback Wednesday tomorrow.
*Trump supporters like the Archdruid and his readers actually approve of what he's doing. I have another post planned about them.
NBC News National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss the early state of play in California's gubernatorial race as former Vice President Kamala Harris weighs a run for governor.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris would have a wide lead over the rest of the field if she were to enter the 2026 race for California governor, according to an Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll released Thursday. April 17, 2025.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is the runaway front-runner in the California governor’s race – but voters are split on whether the failed 2024 Democratic presidential candidate should even enter the fray.
Harris has the support of 31% of Californians who plan to vote in the Golden State’s June 2026 gubernatorial primary election, according to an Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill survey released Thursday,
But half of likely voters, 50%, believe that the former vice president, California senator and state attorney general should not run for the governorship.
Harris’s closest competitors are former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who only mustered 8% support, and Republican Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, who garnered a 4% backing.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a recent entrant into the race, received 2% support.
That's a really good preview image, but I'm suspicious of the channel itself. I wonder who's behind it.
Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the relevant top post plus the most commented posts between March 21, 2024 and March 20, 2025 for today.
The science isn’t so straightforward.
...
RFK, Jr. has put the decades-old debate over water fluoridation back on the table. As Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, he might be the most powerful public health figure in the US who believes we should take fluoride out of our water.
The US has been fluoridating public water systems since 1945, when the children of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and three other cities became the first to experience how fluoridated water can fight tooth decay. Ever since, other municipalities have followed suit. Today, 63 percent of Americans drink fluoridated water from their taps. The US is one of 11 countries worldwide where more than half the population has fluoridated water. Some countries opt for fluoridating salt or milk instead.
Fluoride is essential for our oral health. But there is a growing debate about whether water fluoridation is still necessary now that most toothpaste has fluoride in it. Right now, epidemiologists are looking into whether US water fluoridation doses are safe for developing brains — and how some levels of fluoride in the water may affect child IQ.
Producer and host Laura Bult added the following in the video's pinned comment.
Hello! Something I didn't get into in the video is that part of the difficulty of the science on fluoride is that when it comes to studying its risks, there has never been a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study — the gold standard in science for proving causation. All of the studies we mention in the video are observational. Observational studies are typical in epidemiology when researching something that could be harmful in some doses. But surprisingly, there’s never been this kind of trial on the benefits of water fluoridation, either. The Undark podcast alerted me to the first study of this kind — studying water fluoridation’s benefits — currently underway at the University of North Carolina.
Medical experts warn that the study’s results shouldn’t be a major concern for parents in the U.S.
As both Vox and ABC News pointed out, the levels of fluoride in the study were double that in U.S. drinking water, so the findings don't necessarily apply to Americans. Arizona's Family (3TV/CBS 5) provided more opportunity for dentists to push back in Arizona experts call latest study on fluoride misleading.
A recent study reportedly found a link between high doses of fluoride and lower IQ scores among children, but experts say that's not the whole story.
Concern about fluoridation has historically been the province of cranks and conspiracy theorists, and RFK Jr. is no exception. That written, a stuck clock is still right twice a day, and RFK Jr. is a stuck clock. Those of us who accept science might have to be prepared that this is one of those times, as unlikely as it is. We also have to be prepared that this will encourage him and his anti-science supporters about vaccines, where science and history have repeatedly shown him to be wrong. I don't want this fight, but I'm willing to wage it against RFK Jr. and his supporters, including and especially the ones I needled in I ask The Archdruid and his readers 'Can you show us on the doll exactly where the educated professionals hurt you?' A Festivus airing of grievances. Yes, them, too.
I closed Jon Stewart's message to his viewers about the election by telling my readers "Michigan still hasn't been called for either President or U.S. Senate as I write this, so stay tuned for those results..." convictedcriminalDonald Trump won the Great Lakes State, but Elissa Slotkin won election to the U.S. Senate. Most of the rest of the results were like that, which makes me think that a lot of people voted for Trump and left the rest of the ballot blank or voted for Jill Stein and then Democrats down the ballot. I promise I'll get to that, but I'm not feeling like it today. Instead, I think my readers and I deserve some comfort via comedy, beginning with Stephen Colbert telling his audience You Are Not Alone / The World Reacts To America's Decision.
The Late Show checked in with America's allies and enemies to see how they're reacting to Donald Trump's reelection.
Stephen gauged my mood correctly. I hope he did the same for my readers.
Stephen Colbert delivers his first monologue following Donald Trump's victory over VP Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
I'm tempted to share cute animal videos, too, and it might come to that, but I'm not there yet. Just the same, I understand why Stephen is showing them and his audience appreciates them.
Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump winning the 2024 election, making him the oldest person to take the oath of office and the first person convicted of felony charges to assume the presidency.
What upset me most about this segment was RFK Jr. being in charge of health, which he's bad at, while Trump is keeping him away from energy and the environment, which he's actually good at. It's enough to make me create a label for him, Brainworm. I expect I'll use it a lot during the next four years, although I thought the same of Doctor Pyramid for Ben Carson, who would be better for health than RFK Jr. Instead, I ended up writing "At least you were too boring to write about for the past four [years]" after Carson's service as HUD Secretary. May we be so lucky with RFK Jr.
Desi Lydic unpacks Donald Trump's big presidential election win over Kamala Harris and the subsequent fingerpointing from media pundits. Plus, The Best F**kin' News Team joins Desi to try to muster up some optimism.
We Americans could have elected the first woman as President. Instead, we elected the first convicted criminal. Ugh. The misogyny is real.
Last night we had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal and we chose the criminal, more than half of the country voted for Donald Trump, it turns out the election wasn’t rigged even though he said it was while people were in line voting, Jimmy’s kids were very upset at the news, Jimmy received a lot of texts from anxious friends and family members, President Biden watched all of the action from the White House and he called Trump today to congratulate him, Kamala Harris also called Donald Trump to concede and she gave a speech at her alma mater Howard University, the voting itself went relatively smoothly despite a number of bomb threats that were sent into heavily democratic precincts, it was a terrible night for so many in America, Jimmy offers some thoughts about how we move forward, Cousin Micki shares something positive, and we head out to Hollywood Blvd to ask people if they voted in the election today (even though it was yesterday).
I think Jimmy is right to be worried. I am, too. I would be surprised if I weren't already on some list, although it gives me cold comfort that I'm probably so far down that list that Trump and his coming administration probably won't get to me in the next four years.* Now I'm wondering if people will protect Jimmy, Stephen, Seth, and the rest of the late-night talk show hosts. If so, it would be another example of the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with their entertainment. As I first wrote in 2011, "America is quite clear about its screwed up priorities." Tuesday night just reinforced that.
I've had three posts removed from the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page this month for "spamming." I'm not doing anything different at that page since I created that page years ago. Instead, I think a new follower is reporting me for potentially (too) popular political content. It's likely a U.S. conservative, but Marcy "Emptywheel" Wheeler reported that Russia has compiled a list of over 1,900 “anti-influencers” and I'm wondering if I got on that list. If so, yay, the right enemies, but boo, they might be causing me trouble with Facebook. Either way, it's annoying. Let's hope this stops after the election.
It ended up being five posts, four of which featured either Saturday Night Live or Colbert, before I changed the format of those posts to avoid having them removed.
In the second of our pre-election series we look at America and... climate change. How could Kamala Harris or Donald Trump shape the global response to the climate crisis?
...
As one of the world’s largest producers of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, the US plays a pivotal role in addressing climate change. The environmental policies of the next president could reshape American industry and the economy, while influencing the global fight against climate change.
Sumi Somaskanda speaks to the BBC’s climate editor Justin Rowlatt and Carl Nasman, who covers US climate issues for the BBC.
Project 2025 is calling for the breaking up of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA). Monica Medina, former Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, joins Morning Joe to discuss as Hurricane Milton is set to hit Florida.
That's damage that's already been done and needs to be repaired. I'd rather not imagine the impact of breaking up NOAA, which paid my salary twice. That would make the consequences of extremeweather and other natural disasters worse.
This year’s presidential election will determine the fate of our democracy and, with it, hard-won environmental and climate gains. Project 2025, the conservative playbook for another Trump term, promises to completely eviscerate climate policy and empower Big Oil. Activist and author Bill McKibben and Monica Medina, a former top climate official at the State Department, DoD, and NOAA, join Ali Velshi to discuss what’s at stake this November. 'Biden has done more to support clean energy by far than any president before,' says McKibben. Trump “won’t just politicize the weather – he will weaponize it,” warns Medina.
Not only did McKibben imagine what a U.S. without NOAA would be like, he compared it to convictedcriminalDonald Trump's response to the pandemic, "if we don't know, then we don't have to talk about it." He also brought up Ron DeSantis forbidding mention of climate change in Florida's official documents, all while the Sunshine State was already facing one of the worst hurricane seasons forecast. So far, that dire prediction is coming true. Speaking of which, Trump weaponizing the weather against his enemies isn't a prediction; it already happened during his time as President.
I have three more MSNBC videos about Project 2025 and climate policy to share, but I have papers to correct and dinner to grill, so I'm saving them for part 9. In the meantime, stay tuned for a highlights post of tonight's Saturday Night Live as the Sunday entertainment feature. Ariana Grande and Stevie Nicks!
LOL, because it's not a tradition for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, although it is one for 60 Minutes.
As for Stephen's invitation to convictedcriminalDonald Trump to "go fvck himself," I second his emotion.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is honored to be the only late night television show on Vice President Kamala Harris's media blitz, while her Republican opponent is busy undercutting FEMA's efforts to dig out from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, and his friend Elon Musk is once again the internet’s favorite laughing stock.
I'm glad Stephen returned from break for this episode. Doing so was good for his show, Vice President Harris, and the country.
The Democratic nominee for president of the United States returns for her seventh visit to The Late Show and sits down for a four-part interview with Stephen Colbert. Watch as she and Stephen discuss the devastation of Hurricane Helene and the crude cynicism of Donald Trump who is spreading misinformation about FEMA's response as the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton approaches landfall in Florida. Stick around for three more segments with Vice President Kamala Harris!
I made Funkadelic's "One Nation under a Groove" my personal theme song for Harris's campaign back in 2019 and revived it once she began running again this summer, as shown by this tweet of mine.
