Retiring Guy's Digest

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Just in time for the affordability crisis: Dyson CameraJet toothbrush for $500

Screengrab: YouTube

Headline: TechRadar

Emily Peck reviews the product:

For a deep and thorough way to brush and water-floss your teeth, the Dyson CameraJet offers a unique and effective solution. It includes a 100k pixel macro lens camera that can identify gaps between teeth in real time, to trigger a conical shaped jet spray to blast away plaque. The camera also doubles as a dental endoscope that links to the MyDyson smart app for a live-stream view inside your mouth so you can see how to improve your brushing. It comes with variable intensity, brush and floss settings. While in use, I found that getting the right technique is a bit of a learning curve, but it did leave me with teeth and gums that felt fresh and cleaner each time I used it. While it comes with the intuitive tech and premium styling you’d expect from a Dyson product, at £419.99 (US $568 / AUS $794) plus the costs of the refills £25 (US $33 /AUS $47) for a pack of two, it also comes at a very premium price.

Available at Amazon for $499.99.

Dear snookered Iowa voters: This is the thanks you get for going MAGA. Pay attention next time around. Best, Retiring Guy

Election results: Wikipedia

Headline: Des Moines Register, 8/31/2026

Norah Judson reports:

The Stams aren't the only ones struggling with inflated costs of doing business in Iowa.
A new study shows that Iowans have been bearing an outsized load of the nation's financial burden since Trump implemented new tariffs in early 2025.
The study, conducted by Robert Anthony Bruno, the director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Frank Manzo, an economist at the Midwest Economic Policy Institute, found that Iowa and other Midwest states have been disproportionately hurt by the Trump tariffs.

Illinois Economic Policy Institute

Related posts:

August 2026

Trump's action to lower tariffs on imported beef pisses off Montana cattle ranchers. (8/29)

Donald Trump: Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest all rolled into one. (8/.27)

January-May 2026

Big Beautiful Tariffs boost the cost of your groceries. (5/13)

Trump tariffs: Total disaster for American importers and consumers. (4/3)

Tariffs, trade war, Strait of Hormuz blockade: Trump piles on pain on American farmers. (3/17)

Trump tariffs disrupt the plans of small businesses. (3/5)

Trump tariffs put many American manufacturing jobs at risk, (2/28)

Trump economy is a shitstorm for farm implement manufacturers. (2/24)

Trump and his advisers lied when they told us that the cost of new tariffs would be paid for by foreign suppliers. (2/13)

More examples of the damage done by Trump's tariffs and trade wars. (2/1)

Trump visits Iowa, causing farmers there to reflect on how badly he fucked them over in 2025. (1/18)

Trump tariffs, trade war, and nativism trash U.S. economy in 2025. (1/16)

December 2025

In his dreams, Trump sees an A+++++ economy. (12/11)

Donald Trump dreams of pencils. (12/11)

Another big fuck-up: Trump's $12 billion bailout doesn't come close to making up what farmers have lost thanks to his tariffs and trade war. (12/9)

While Trump sleeps, many Americans complain about the cost of living. (12/4)

You are probably not enjoying a high-end shopping experience this holiday season. (12/4)

Trump's tariffs raised the cost of her trench coat more than 50%. (12/3)

November 2025

The Budget Lab at Yale: Trump tariffs result in average household income loss of $1800. (11/25)

Dear Donnie, No one in their right mind is buying your bunkum. Best, Retiring Guy. (11/25)

Trump tariffs and trade war are pushing more Iowa farmers into bankruptcy... and thoughts of suicide. (11/21)

Consumer confidence plunges 30% since Trump was elected to a second term. (11/11)

Wisconsin 2026 elections: Democrat Paul Johnson challenges two-term Republican incumbent Chanz Green in the 74th Assembly District

Before redistricting, the GOP gerrymandered 74th Assembly District included all of Bayfield, Ashland, Iron and Price counties, a sliver of eastern Douglas County, the northern edge of Sawyer County, and a small chunk of northwest Vilas County. Quite the smorgasbord.

After redistricting, the district now includes the south portion of Douglas, Bayfield, and Ashland counties as well as all of Iron, Sawyer, and Washburn counties

The Redistricting Data Hub website defines a "community of interest" as:

...a group of people with shared concerns, interests, and characteristics. Every COI is unique; they might be formed around neighborhoods or the physical landscape, cultures, values, and many other things. Because of these shared interests and concerns, a common redistricting criteria is that COIs be considered during the process.

Maps and election results: Ballotpedia

GOP incumbent Chanz Green flipped the 74th Assembly District in 2022 and then won re-election to a second term by 25-point margin. This outcome doesn't bode well for this year Democratic challenger Paul Johnson to flip the district back to blue.

Related reading:

Wisconsin Applied Population Lab, 6/18/2018

Malia Jones explains:

Two core concepts of gerrymandering were central to the arguments presented to the high court: cracking and packing. A third process, known as stacking, also crops up in gerrymandered political maps, but was not the focus of Gill v. Whitford.

Cracking and packing both refer to specific ways of drawing legislative boundaries with the outcomes of elections in mind. These two processes operate in tension with one another, but both can be implemented by a party in power seeking to maximize its electoral chances through gerrymandering.

Packing refers to the practice of drawing particular districts in such a way as to ensure that another party's candidate wins that seat by a tremendous margin. Although the opposing party is all but guaranteed the seat, packing makes surrounding districts less competitive, and thus tips the balance of power in the legislative body overall toward the ruling party.

Cracking involves drawing districts in such a way as to divide a concentration of specific types of voters across several districts such that they are a minority in each one, with practically no hope of achieving representation in any of the districts. This practice also helps make districts less competitive. [emphasis added]

Other Wisconsin 2026 election posts:

1st Assembly District. (6/11/2026)

2nd Assembly District. (6/14/2026)

3rd Assembly District. (6/15/2026)

4th Assembly District. (6/17/2026)

5th Assembly District. (6/18/2026)

6th Assembly District. (6/20/2026)

7th Assembly District. (6/21/2026)

8th Assembly District. (6/21/2026)

9th Assembly District. (6/22/2026)

10th Assembly District. (6/23/2026)

11th Assembly District. (6/23/2026)