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TheCatt wrote: Tue Sep 23, 2025 1:53 pm I hope they go after those people personally.

I think both corporate executives and government officials should be held personally responsible, both criminally and financially, for their decisions.

Not for everything, of course. Can't lock someone up because they thought a new product or policy was a good idea.

Announcing this IF (emphasized that to be fair) the science isn't there, censoring Americans, intentionally working against or otherwise breaking the law, being corrupt, etc. should get you thrown in the pokey to get pokied.

This probably doesn't belong in this thread because it's more about the people than Trump, but it's timely here.

We have a serious mental health issue in this country and there's no denying it.

First, Trump makes his dumb announcement about Tylenol that lacks real scientific evidence.

Now, pregnant cultists are making videos on TikTok where they're intentionally taking well above the recommended dosage of Tylenol.

We all know he's wrong, but do you understand how mentally broken you have to be to take a chance with your unborn child's life? At worst, you're doing it out of spite. At best, you're doing it for likes. (Which is really worst and best?)

I will allow exceptions for any pregger women who happen to be scientists at Tylenol...

It doesn't help that I just watched a long video of a former teacher reading true parent requests, and honestly, there are just a fuckton of bad parents out there.

Related:
Allegedly, the tweet below is real. Doesn't prove shit one way or the other, and was probably just written on the advice of a lawyer. However, Tylenol has made it disappear from their feed. The problem is people have multiple receipts of it (allegedly) and even posts where it was part of a chain, which shows the deleted tweet.

IF real, there's no way it isn't brought up during the inevitable lawsuit.

Although, I was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that Tylenol just needs to meet with Trump, cut a check to pay for some government thing, and Trump will come out with a new announcement that Tylenol's the best.

Leisher wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:17 pm Now, pregnant cultists are making videos on TikTok where they're intentionally taking well above the recommended dosage of Tylenol.

We all know he's wrong, but do you understand how mentally broken you have to be to take a chance with your unborn child's life? At worst, you're doing it out of spite. At best, you're doing it for likes. (Which is really worst and best?)

I don't believe anything on tiktok.

That being said OTC dosages are routinely half of prescription (but still safe) doses of many medicines. I do not know if Tylenol is in that category.

I would think Tylenol is pretty safe. I know it's the only one I can take.

They do have pretty strong versions of it though at the hospital. So, not-OTC Tylenol.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/us/p ... =url-share

Tylenol says 2017 tweet was taken out of context.

Not saying he's wrong, but uh, that doesn't prove anything was taken out of context. He's adding context. Context that contradicts the tweet, BTW.

The response was “incomplete and did not address our full guidance on the safe use of Tylenol which has not changed: Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women as needed throughout their entire pregnancy,” Kenvue said, referring to the active ingredient in Tylenol.

To be fair, maybe I'm reading it wrong and he was actually saying the tweet sucked and should have said this instead?

Anyway, I didn't realize Trump's condemnation of Tylenol for preggos was based on a Harvard study. Sorry, but I couldn't be bothered to look into his announcement in great detail because...checks notes...I don't give a fuck.

But I do want to say to the people upset about it: "What happened to 'trust the science' and wasn't Harvard one of the trusted leaders on Covid?" You know, just to be a dick. - Anthony Jezelnick

I did learn this morning from a completely unrelated topic and source (a murder podcast) that Tylenol is one of the "big three" when it comes to people trying to OD their way to suicide. I googled it to confirm, and yep. I never would have guessed that. I really thought you could take handfuls of Tylenol without issue.

This whole thing has given us a couple decent memes:

Leisher wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 4:43 pm I did learn this morning from a completely unrelated topic and source (a murder podcast) that Tylenol is one of the "big three" when it comes to people trying to OD their way to suicide. I googled it to confirm, and yep. I never would have guessed that. I really thought you could take handfuls of Tylenol without issue.

There's a limit of about 4-5grams per day. Yeah, liver failure. That's why you're not supposed to take it when drinking.

Anyway, I didn't realize Trump's condemnation of Tylenol for preggos was based on a Harvard study. Sorry, but I couldn't be bothered to look into his announcement in great detail because...checks notes...I don't give a fuck.

Cuz some studies are better than others. You can look into this one, it's not high quality.

But the memes have been good.

Your tweet took me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I went to the guy's thesis on the study, and I think I understand now why my dad gets frustrated with me when I'm giving him tech support. He says I talk over him and way too fast. Point being, dude wrote that thing for other eggheads. Tough read! It's very inside baseball. Extremely good though.

His final note about DOGE cutting "tons" of bogus research is really interesting.

TheCatt wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 5:36 pm Cuz some studies are better than others. You can look into this one, it's not high quality.

I'd like to see an unbiased study on studies.

-What sources generate the most questionable studies?
-When studies have paid sponsors, what is the rate at which said sponsor gets the results they want?
-What institutes/scientists deliver the most "paid" results?

Studies are cited so often and affect governmental policies so strongly that I think more needs to be done to ensure fair and unbiased results.

Is there an organization that acts as a middleman between scientists/institutions and corps/govs doing the funding? It should all be blind. The eggheads should never have any direct communication with the financers.

Leisher wrote: Fri Sep 26, 2025 9:27 am I'd like to see an unbiased study on studies.

Every once in a while there's a study and it's like "Huh, like half these studies don't replicate"

Tweet from the White House

Sometimes he's right.

Again, politicians really need social media lessons.

And yeah, this is why I always do the "give credit where credit is due" thing. They all get some things right every now and again.

Eric Adams dropped out of the race, so NYC is going to FAFO:

Leisher wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 12:05 pm Eric Adams dropped out of the race, so NYC is going to FAFO:

This is the stupidest timeline. Mamdani + Trump.

I wonder if the rich people in NYC, particularly the white and Jewish ones, are starting their exit plans?

He has very clearly stated that they are the primary target of all his tax plans and how he thinks he's going to pay for everything.

Leisher wrote: Tue Sep 30, 2025 1:37 pm I wonder if the rich people in NYC, particularly the white and Jewish ones, are starting their exit plans?

Yes.

US Economy winning so hard that it's losing jobs.

Private payrolls declined in September by 32,000 in key ADP report coming amid shutdown data blackout

I'm old enough to remember when the vast majority of Americans said the economy was shit and nobody could afford anything, which included frozen housing and car markets, but we were all told tough shit. Oh, and "learn to code."

Jokes aside, I have a serious question on the private jobs topic:

Doesn't matter who is in office, why do we put the blame on them? Set aside the whole "the previous president's policies are in action now" argument, Congress being more responsible for the economy, Trump's tariffs, and everything else.

Why is the onus not on private industry itself?

-They lay people off constantly and not because it was necessary, but for the bottom line.
-You've got AI being used to replace people now and in greater numbers than you are aware.
-Companies outsource many of their jobs overseas or to H1Bs here (or whatever their code is)...and granted this one government CAN do something about, but wouldn't it be Congress?
-Study after study is showing American workers have never been more miserable and overworked (modern times only obviously) because every company is trying to run with the least amount of manpower possible. Meanwhile, customer service has never been worse, quality is in the shitter, and so on.
-Illegals took 'R jobs!!! Seriously, the construction industry has a massive, massive problem where companies stopped hiring skilled Americans in favor of unskilled, but cheap illegals. It's why they've been hardest hit by ICE raids.
-Our economy and most of the jobs have moved from higher paying manufacturing jobs to lower paying and easily replaced service jobs.

Ultimately, if private companies could reduce their payroll cost to $0 tomorrow, they would do it in a heartbeat. That's the president's fault? I don't even think it's Congress' fault?

Ultimately, as I've been saying forever, the system we're currently operating under is not sustainable. It's not Capitalism, it's "Serenity Now", because insanity is absolutely coming later.

Saw this about two weeks ago. Relevant:

Leisher wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 11:52 am Doesn't matter who is in office, why do we put the blame on them? Set aside the whole "the previous president's policies are in action now" argument, Congress being more responsible for the economy, Trump's tariffs, and everything else.

Right now, I blame Trump's tariffs and economic uncertainty caused by his policies. The macro environment sucks. Ask the farmers how tariffs are going. I wouldn't hire anyone in this environment.

Laying people off isnt an issue, that's normal. People get jobs, people lose jobs. The problem is that new or growing companies should be offsetting those losses, and they are not. Because of government policy, imho.

Outsourcing - Hard to legislate. H1Bs, etc are easier to legislate, since they are explicitly created by legislation. Trump announced some kind of $100k fee, it's bullshit and not legally sound, but he announced it. I have mixed feelings. The US should do whatever it can to attract talent, especially the people smart enough to improve our technology base and start new companies.

High paying manufacturing jobs are gone. Or you can try to be Europe, where you protect your jobs, and lose your competitiveness in the global economy.

Leisher wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 11:52 am Ultimately, if private companies could reduce their payroll cost to $0 tomorrow, they would do it in a heartbeat. That's the president's fault? I don't even think it's Congress' fault?

Sure. But they operate in an environment governed by regulations + policies. And companies SHOULD strive to do this. That's efficiency. That's a win for global wealth when we can make more with less. How to account for the human costs? Hard to say. Again, ask Europe.

TheCatt wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:39 pm I blame Trump's tariffs and economic uncertainty caused by his policies.

Fair, but I'm genuinely trying to avoid the politics part because I think there's a real issue beyond that. Honestly, the conversation I'm trying to have should probably be moved to the finance thread.

TheCatt wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:39 pm Ask the farmers how tariffs are going.

BTW, remember I work in the Ag industry and I can tell you the ones we work with are doing great. We're on the animal side of Ag though. It must be the produce farmers that are hurting?

TheCatt wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:39 pm Laying people off isnt an issue, that's normal. People get jobs, people lose jobs. The problem is that new or growing companies should be offsetting those losses, and they are not. Because of government policy, imho.

This is where we disagree (and I'm not even sure that's the right word). I don't think the cycle you describe is infinite. Even if it should be, we've hit a serious low point and it's not just because of government policy.

Like I said, longer conversation for a different thread.

TheCatt wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:39 pm The US should do whatever it can to attract talent, especially the people smart enough to improve our technology base and start new companies.

Strong agree, but there should be a limit and some caveats/rules. Assimilate and in return for citizenship/opportunity you owe us some loyalty. I think that should come in the form of:
-You can't take your new education or opportunity and run to another country with it
-You can't load up companies with your homies from the old country

TheCatt wrote: Wed Oct 01, 2025 12:39 pm High paying manufacturing jobs are gone.

True and I do blame government here. You're the largest consumer economy in the world. If you don't have the power to influence the world stage, it proves my point that Adam Smith's invisible hand is not working as intended.

Capitalism is the superior economic system, but it is deeply flawed. Piss poor government, and yes, from both parties, ain't helping.

I fear we are reaching a point of disaster, and something needs to dramatically change.

Ok, back to the topic of the thread...

POTUS this week posted the following two tweets:

I had seen the first one and thought, nobody can deny he's embarrassing and childish. Then I saw the second one, and I have to admit, I laughed. If you're going to be childish, I guess lean into it? Our government has people posting memes and pulling fire alarms. I dare anyone to tell me how our politicians are the best of us.