#it’s been such a taxing process for no reason

[coldpapernightmare]

Heres the thing, it would be soul crushing enough if this would only impact AO3 and other means of fanfiction, but it's bigger than that.

This claims to be a Bill making it possible for the Head of Tressury ( a roll filled by someone picked by the president) to investigate and take away the tax-free status any non-profit found funding terrorist.

The problem is the IRS is already capable of this. The IRS has already BEEN doing this.

This doesn't make it so they're suddenly able to get the terrorists they weren't able to get before, this makes it so the process of investigation gets less oversight and gets put in the hands of someone who answers more directly to the president.

This will effect libraries, schools, multiple legal groups fighting for human rights, Planned Parenthood, The Trevor Project, museums and zoos Hospitals.......

Any thing that is considered a non-profit that the Trump administration can take issue with will suddenly be on the chopping block if the cronies can spin the definition of Terrorism against them.

Here's how we get our conservative relatives to take our side on this though....

Churches will be on the chopping block too.

It is not that much of a stretch to think that with all the Christian infighting that can happen between diffrent denominations that all it will take is one guy in office who has it out for the Baptist, or Protestants, or Catholics or ect, to find some way to spin the argument that the church outreach to the homeless or needy ( which many are supposed to do) serviced someone who went on to do something considered a terrorist act and thus make the church guilty of " funding" them and thus give the goverment reason to tax the Church.

If our conservative relatives want to have this complex of being persecuted then they need to use it now, cause this one isn't even a lie to say it's possible ( even if it's unlikely a Christian church of any denomination would be targeted before any other religion)

Readers, make sure you have all your favourite Ao3 fics downloaded.

Writers, make sure you have copies of all the fics you have posted on Ao3.

I don’t want to be alarming, but things could get really bad really fast. OTW shared this today on Twitter, and I'm a bit worried about it 😅

Ao3 is a non-profit organisation. If they have to start paying taxes, I have no idea what will happen.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 20, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 20, 2024

Remember how American voters so hated Project 2025, the playbook for a second Trump term written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing institutions, that Trump said he had nothing to do with it, and then one of its key architects, Russell Vought, told undercover filmmakers that Trump was only running away from the project as political cover? 

It appears Vought was right and the story that Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025 was, indeed, just political cover. Ed O’Keefe and Major Garrett of CBS News reported today that two sources close to the Trump transition team have told them that they expect Trump to name Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Vought wrote the section of Project 2025 that covers the presidency, calling for “aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch” to “bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will” and identifying the OMB as the means of enforcing the president’s agenda. Vought was Trump’s OMB director during the end of his first term and tried to remove the civil service protections that have been in place since 1883 to protect federal workers from being fired for political reasons. That plan, known as Schedule F, would have affected about 88% of the federal workforce. 

One of the first things Biden did when he took office was to rescind Trump’s executive order making that shift.

Like that earlier attempt, Project 2025 leans heavily on the idea that “personnel is policy,” and that idea illuminates the choices the Trump team is making. Trump has refused to sign the official documents required by the 2022 Presidential Transition Act. Those documents mandate ethics commitments and require the incoming president to disclose private donations. They also limit those donations. Without the paperwork, Trump appointees cannot start the process of getting security clearances through the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the team says it is planning to do its own vetting of its candidates instead.  

Claiming they have a mandate, Trump’s people have said they are launching “a hostile takeover” of the American government “on behalf of the American people.” But as voting numbers continue to come in, Trump’s majority has fallen below 50% of voters, meaning that more voters chose someone else than chose Trump on November 5. These results are far from being in “mandate” territory.

The U.S. Constitution charges Congress with writing the laws under which the American people live, and the president with taking “care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Since 1933, Congress has created an extensive system of agencies that regulate business and provide a basic social safety net. Congress will say, for example, that the U.S. needs an agency to protect the environment (like the Environmental Protection Agency, established under Republican president Richard M. Nixon), appropriate money for it, oversee its leadership, and then trust those leaders to hire the personnel necessary to carry out its mission. 

Regulations and social welfare programs and the agencies that provide them are broadly popular—think how hard it has been for members to get rid of Social Security, for example—so Congress trims at the edges rather than abolishing them. As the U.S. budget has grown, they often bear the brunt of accusations that the government spends too much, although what has really caused the budget to operate deeply in the red is the tax cuts for the wealthy put into place by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.  

Right-wing leaders who want to continue cutting regulations and taxes are newly empowered by Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, and they are turning to a quirk of the government to enable them to work around Congress. 

Since the first administration of President George Washington, agencies created by Congress have lived in the Executive Branch. If, as Vought and others argue, the president is the absolute authority in that branch, Trump can do whatever he wants with those agencies and the civil servants—the bureaucrats—who run them.  

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy laid out their plans for cutting the U.S. government. Neither of them has ever held elected office, but they see that as an advantage, not a downside: “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they write. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.” Trump has named them to the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. Despite the “department” name, DOGE is not an official government agency—which would require ethics disclosures—but rather an advisory panel. 

Their op-ed begins by redefining congressional authority to create agencies to suggest that agencies are illegitimate. “Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees,” they write, “but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.” This, they say, “imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers.” 

“Thankfully,” they continue, “we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.”

While “politicians” have “abetted” an “entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy,” they write, they will work with the OMB to identify regulations that, they claim, Trump can issue an executive order to stop enforcing. “This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy,” they write. Should Trump want to cut things that Congress wants to fund, they claim that Trump will simply refuse to spend those appropriations, challenging the 1974 Impoundment Control Act that declared such withholding illegal. 

Musk and Ramaswamy reiterated their support for cutting programs that are not currently authorized, although budget experts note that such a lapse is a tool to permit adjustments to programs Congress has, in fact, authorized and have also pointed out that one of the top items on that list is health care for veterans. Cuts to all these programs will naturally mean extensive cuts to the federal workforce. 

“With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6–3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court,” they write, “DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action.” 

They conclude by asserting that “[t]here is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud,” which is one heck of a conclusion to a blueprint for taking the power of American lawmaking from the Congress, where the Framers put it, and delivering it into the hands of an extraordinarily powerful president acting on the advice of two unelected billionaires, one of whom wasn’t born in the United States.  

In the vein of getting rid of regulations, today the chief executive of Delta Air Lines said he expected the Trump administration would be a “breath of fresh air” after the Biden administration’s consumer-protection laws that he called government “overreach.” 

Meanwhile, in Washington, the Senate has been confirming President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, with the absence of Republican senators making the confirmations easier.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[hythlodaes]

x.x

[miek-unofficial]

i think taxes should be higher and it should all go towards helping people and none of it should go to the military

[perma-dead]

guys help i made an au on tuesday and i’ve written over 4k in terms of character info/lore + actual story. i haven’t plotted out the whole thing yet but i have enough info for a first chapter and then some so when (if) i finish it i will post it with the disclaimer that it might not get written for a while </3 but i do think you all might like it

[icedteaandoldlace]

Had a loooooooooooooong conversation with tech support at work today because one of our registers decided to try something new, and it took a lot of finagling for him to get it up and running right again. He made a Robin Hood Men In Tights reference at one point, and I didn't remember the scene, but I said that I had seen the movie and enjoyed it. Which led to him recommending Young Frankenstein, and I was like "oh my god, I LOVE Young Frankenstein!" And then he told me I needed to see Blazing Saddles, which I have not seen, but my parents saw it in the hospital after my mom's gallbladder surgery ages ago, and they had to turn it off because she was laughing too hard. That was honestly the highlight of my day, 'cause we got some extra Not Smart customers today.

[astralazuli]

[vibrates angrily]

I stg if I had any tolerance for dealing with the general public, I would be telling all those asshole W/atcher fans about how even if they paid their employees the BARE MINIMUM to meet their needs (& I'm talking just needs, just barely, no savings, no retirement, no anything unnecessary literally ever, all meals cooked from scratch at home as cheap as possible), they'd currently be spending AT LEAST $117k on payroll every month. & that's like everyone involved working full time, nothing more, including the three founders.

& guess what y'all? Workers' rights don't just go out the window because you want your shows for free.

These people still deserve a living wage. In fact, they deserve a bit more than that, imo. People deserve to not have to live on bare minimum.

& you don't get to be angry as a fan because creators prioritized keeping & paying their workers over you not having to pay anything for the art/content they make.

They are holding themselves accountable to the people whose lives depend on them. Screaming about how they aren't just abandoning their employees because you're mad just makes you look like an ass.

[headspace-hotel]

I went down the internet rabbit hole trying to figure out wtf vegan cheese is made of and I found articles like this one speaking praises of new food tech startups creating vegan alternatives to cheese that Actually work like cheese in cooking so I was like huh that's neat and I looked up more stuff about 'precision fermentation' and. This is not good.

Basically these new biotech companies are pressuring governments to let them build a ton of new factories and pushing for governments to pay for them or to provide tax breaks and subsidies, and the factories are gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require energy sources. Like, these things will have to be expensive and HUGE

I feel like I've just uncovered the tip of the "lab grown meat" iceberg. There are a bajillion of these companies (the one mentioned in the first article a $750 MILLION tech startup) that are trying to create "animal-free" animal products using biotech and want to build large factories to do it on a large scale

I'm trying to use google to find out about the energy requirements of such facilities and everything is really vague and hand-wavey about it like this article that's like "weeeeeell electricity can be produced using renewables" but it does take a lot of electricity, sugars, and human labor. Most of the claims about its sustainability appear to assume that we switch over to renewable electricity sources and/or use processes that don't fully exist yet.

I finally tracked down the source of some of the more radical claims about precision fermentation, and it comes from a think tank RethinkX that released a report claiming that the livestock industry will collapse by 2030, and be replaced by a system they're calling...

Food-as-Software, in which individual molecules engineered by scientists are uploaded to databases – molecular cookbooks that food engineers anywhere in the world can use to design products in the same way that software developers design apps.

I'm finding it hard to be excited about this for some odd reason

Where's the evidence for lower environmental impacts. That's literally what we're here for.

There will be an increase in the amount of electricity used in the new food system as the production facilities that underpin it rely on electricity to operate.

well that doesn't sound good.

This will, however, be offset by reductions in energy use elsewhere along the value chain. For example, since modern meat and dairy products will be produced in a sterile environment where the risk of contamination by pathogens is low, the need for refrigeration in storage and retail will decrease significantly.

Oh, so it will be better for the Earth because...we won't need to refrigerate. ????????

Oh Lord Jesus give me some numerical values.

Modern foods will be about 10 times more efficient than a cow at converting feed into end products because a cow needs energy via feed to maintain and build its body over time. Less feed consumed means less land required to grow it, which means less water is used and less waste is produced. The savings are dramatic – more than 10-25 times less feedstock, 10 times less water, five times less energy and 100 times less land.

There is nothing else in this report that I can find that provides evidence for a lower carbon footprint. Supposedly, an egg white protein produced through a similar process has been found to reduce environmental impacts, but mostly everything seems very speculative.

And crucially none of these estimations are taking into account the enormous cost and resource investment of constructing large factories that use this technology in the first place (existing use is mostly for pharmaceutical purposes)

It seems like there are more tech startups attempting to use this technology to create food than individual scientific papers investigating whether it's a good idea. Seriously, Google Scholar and JSTOR have almost nothing. The tech of the sort that RethinkX is describing barely exists.

Apparently Liberation Labs is planning to build the first large-scale precision fermentation facility in Richmond, Indiana come 2024 because of the presence of "a workforce experienced in manufacturing"

And I just looked up Richmond, Indiana and apparently, as of RIGHT NOW, the town is in the aftermath of a huge fire at a plastics recycling plant and is full of toxic debris containing asbestos and the air is full of toxic VOCs and hydrogen cyanide. ???????????? So that's how having a robust industrial sector is working out for them so far.

[black-fist-order]

This gentleman was a college professor in political science. He gives some intriguing insights here...

"Friends,

A political disaster such as what occurred Tuesday gains significance not simply by virtue of who won or lost, but through how the election is interpreted.

This is known as The Lesson of the election.

The Lesson explains what happened and why. It deciphers the public’s mood, values, and thoughts. It attributes credit and blame.

And therein lies its power. When The Lesson of the election becomes accepted wisdom — when most of the politicians, pundits, and politicians come to believe it — it shapes the future. It determines how parties, candidates, political operatives, and journalists approach future elections.

There are many reasons for what occurred on Tuesday and for what the outcome should teach America — about where the nation is and about what Democrats should do in the future.

Yet inevitably, one Lesson predominates.

Today, I want to share with you six conventional “lessons” you will hear for Tuesday’s outcome. None is or should be considered The Lesson of the 2024 election.

Then I’ll give you what I consider the real Lesson of the election.

None of these are The Lesson of the 2024 election:

1. "It was a total repudiation of the Democratic Party, a major realignment."

Rubbish. Harris would have won had there been a small, less than 1 percent vote shift in the three main battleground states. The biggest shift from 2020 and 2016 was among Latino men. We don’t know yet whether Latino men will return to the Democrats; if they don’t, they will contribute to a small realignment.

But the fact is America elected Trump in 2016, almost reelected him in 2020, and elected him again in 2024. We haven't changed much, at least in terms of whom we vote for.

2. "If the Dems want to win in the future, they have to move to the right. They should stop talking about 'democracy,' forget 'multiculturalism,' and end their focus on women’s rights, transgender rights, immigrants’ rights, voting rights, civil rights, and America’s shameful history of racism and genocide. Instead, push to strengthen families, cut taxes, allow school choice and prayer in public schools, reduce immigration, minimize our obligations abroad, and put America and Americans first."

Wrong. Democrats shouldn’t move to the right if that means giving up on democracy, social justice, civil rights, and equal voting rights. While Democrats might reconsider their use of “identity” politics (in which people are viewed primarily through the lenses of race, ethnicity, or gender), Democrats must not lose the moral ideals at the heart of the Party and at the core of America.

3. "Republicans won because of misinformation and right-wing propaganda. They won over young men because of a vicious alliance between Trump and a vast network of online influencers and podcasts appealing to them. The answer is for Democrats to cultivate an equivalent media ecosystem that rivals what the right has built."

Partly true. Misinformation and right-wing propaganda did play a role, particularly in reaching young men. But this hardly means progressives and Democrats should fill the information ecosystem with misinformation or left-wing propaganda. Better messaging, yes. Lies and bigotry, no.

We should use our power as consumers to boycott X and all advertisers on X and on Fox News, mount defamation and other lawsuits against platforms that foment hate, and push for regulations (at least at the state level for now) requiring that all platforms achieve minimum standards of moderation and decency.

4. "Republicans cheated. Trump, Putin, and election deniers at county and precinct levels engaged in a vast conspiracy to suppress votes."

I doubt it. Putin tried, but so far there’s no sign that the Kremlin affected any voting process. There is little or no evidence of widespread cheating by Republicans. Dems should not feed further conspiracy theories about fraudulent voting or tallying. For the most part, the system worked smoothly, and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to election workers and state officials in charge of the process.

5. "Harris ran a lousy campaign. She wasn’t a good communicator. She fudged and shifted her positions on issues. She was weighed down by Biden and didn’t sufficiently separate herself from him."

Untrue. Harris ran a good campaign, but she had only a little over three months to do it. She had to introduce herself to the nation (typically a vice president is almost invisible within an administration) at the same time Trump’s antics sucked most of the oxygen out of the political air. She could have been clearer about her proposals and policies and embraced economic populism (see below on the real lesson), but her debate with Trump was the best debate performance I’ve ever witnessed, and her speeches were pitch perfect. Biden may have weighed her down a bit, but his decision to step down was gracious and selfless.

6. "Racism and misogyny. Voters were simply not prepared to elect a Black female president."

Partly true. Surely racism and misogyny played a role, but bigotry can’t offer a full explanation.

--

Here’s the real Lesson of the 2024 election:

On Tuesday, according to exit polls, Americans voted mainly on the economy — and their votes reflected their class and level of education.

While the economy has improved over the last two years according to standard economic measures, most Americans without college degrees — that’s the majority — have not felt it.

In fact, most Americans without college degrees have not felt much economic improvement for four decades, and their jobs have grown less secure. The real median wage of the bottom 90 percent is stuck nearly where it was in the early 1990s, even though the economy is more than twice as large.

Most of the economy’s gains have gone to the top.

This has caused many Americans to feel frustrated and angry. Trump gave voice to that anger. Harris did not.

The real lesson of the 2024 election is that Democrats must not just give voice to the anger but also explain how record inequality has corrupted our system, and pledge to limit the political power of big corporations and the super-rich.

The basic bargain used to be that if you worked hard and played by the rules, you’d do better and your children would do even better than you.

But since 1980, that bargain has become a sham. The middle class has shrunk.

Why? While Republicans steadily cut taxes on the wealthy, Democrats abandoned the working class.

Democrats embraced NAFTA and lowered tariffs on Chinese goods. They deregulated finance and allowed Wall Street to become a high-stakes gambling casino. They let big corporations gain enough market power to keep prices (and profit margins) high.

They let corporations bust unions (with negligible penalties) and slash payrolls. They bailed out Wall Street when its gambling addiction threatened to blow up the entire economy but never bailed out homeowners who lost everything.

They welcomed big money into their campaigns — and delivered quid pro quos that rigged the market in favor of big corporations and the wealthy.

Joe Biden redirected the Democratic Party back toward its working-class roots, but many of the changes he catalyzed — more vigorous antitrust enforcement, stronger enforcement of labor laws, and major investments in manufacturing, infrastructure, semiconductors, and non-fossil fuels — wouldn’t be evident for years, and he could not communicate effectively about them.

The Republican Party says it’s on the side of working people, but its policies will hurt ordinary workers even more. Trump’s tariffs will drive up prices. His expected retreat from vigorous antitrust enforcement will allow giant corporations to drive up prices further.

If Republicans gain control over the House as well as the Senate, as looks likely, they will extend Trump’s 2017 tax law and add additional tax cuts. As in 2017, these lower taxes will benefit mainly the wealthy and enlarge the national debt, which will give Republicans an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — their objectives for decades.

Democrats must no longer do the bidding of big corporations and the wealthy. They must instead focus on winning back the working class.

They should demand paid family leave, Medicare for all, free public higher education, stronger unions, higher taxes on great wealth, and housing credits that will generate the biggest boom in residential home construction since World War II.

They should also demand that corporations share their profits with their workers. They should call for limits on CEO pay, eliminate all stock buybacks (as was the SEC rule before 1982), and reject corporate welfare (subsidies and tax credit to particular companies and industries unrelated to the common good).

Democrats need to tell Americans why their pay has been lousy for decades and their jobs less secure: not because of immigrants, liberals, people of color, the “deep state,” or any other Trump Republican bogeyman, but because of the power of large corporations and the rich to rig the market and siphon off most of the economy’s gains.

In doing this, Democrats need not turn their backs on democracy. Democracy goes hand-in-hand with a fair economy. Only by reducing the power of big money in our politics can America grow the middle class, reward hard work, and reaffirm the basic bargain at the heart of our system.

If the Trump Republicans gain control of the House, as seems likely, they will have complete control of the federal government. That means they will own whatever happens to the economy and will be responsible for whatever happens to America. Notwithstanding all their anti-establishment populist rhetoric, they will become the establishment.

The Democratic Party should use this inflection point to shift ground — from being the party of well-off college graduates, big corporations, “never-Tumpers” like Dick Cheney, and vacuous “centrism” — to an anti-establishment party ready to shake up the system on behalf of the vast majority of Americans.

This is and should be The Lesson of the 2024 election.

What do you think...?"

Robert Reich...

[zvaigzdelasas]

You can’t buy the Seagull in the US. But I bet you wish you could.

A small hatchback around the size of a Mini Cooper, the Seagull is a fast-charging electric car and claims a range of up to 250 miles [...] BYD, its Chinese manufacturer, claims it can go from 30 percent to 80 percent charged in a half-hour using a DC plug. It’s hardly a luxury car but it’s well-equipped, with a power driver’s seat and cruise control. “If I were looking for an inexpensive commuter car … this would be perfect,” veteran car journalist John McElroy said after taking a drive.

The best part? Its base model costs about $10,700 in China.

That’s about a third of the cost of the cheapest EV you can buy in the US. In South America, it’s a little pricier, but still fairly affordable, at under $24,000 for a top-trim version. Even in Europe, you can get an entry-level BYD for under €30,000. These are absolutely screaming deals — exactly the kind of products that could turbocharge our transition away from gas and toward electric vehicles.[...]

The problem for Americans? The Biden administration is hell-bent on preventing you from buying BYD’s product, and if Donald Trump returns to office, he is likely to fight it as well.

That’s because the BYD cars are made in China, and both Biden and Trump are committed to an ultranationalist trade policy meant to keep BYD’s products out. [...] Shipments to Europe have increased astronomically; Chinese companies sold 0.5 percent of EVs in Europe in 2019 but they’re already over 9 percent as of last year. Companies like BYD make cheap, reasonably good-quality cars people are eager to buy.

In 2018, Trump imposed, and Biden has since continued, a special 25 percent tax on Chinese-made autos, on top of the ordinary 2.5 percent tax on foreign-made cars.

That has so far prevented BYD and its Chinese peers from trying to enter the US market. US customer tastes are different enough that Chinese manufacturers would probably prefer to make cars tailored to them — but US policy has been so hostile toward cheap Chinese EVs that so far, the companies haven’t wanted to bother.

So, the result is that we’re left out of the bounty of cheap EV options created by BYD and others. “If you’re a consumer right now, the best place to be right now is China, because you have the best choice of EVs,” Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an expert on Chinese EVs, says.[...]

Still, China’s price advantage is big enough that even the extreme Trump-Biden import tax might not be enough to deter companies like BYD from entering the US market. Even with the tariffs, Chinese cars might be cheaper than their rivals. “​​Subsidies most likely won’t be enough; Mr. Biden will need to impose [more] trade restrictions,” climate journalist Robinson Meyer predicted recently. The Biden administration is already making noise about imposing even more draconian taxes or trade restrictions against these vehicles. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has described Chinese-made cars as a national security threat, and recently announced an investigation into the vehicles’ data collection abilities and the possibility they could send movement data to Beijing.

On the one hand, Biden is offering Americans up to $7,500 per vehicle to buy EVs (provided they meet certain made-in-North America rules). On the other hand, he’s imposing massive taxes to keep Americans from buying EVs. It’s a bizarre policy that makes no sense from a climate perspective.[...]

[The Biden Administration] has proven shockingly willing to sabotage its own climate policy if it gets to stick it to the Chinese in the process.

“There’s almost an across-the-board apprehension about Chinese EVs, even though they would make an important contribution to [lower] CO2 emissions,” Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a veteran trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says.[...]

Realistically, Helveston argues, BYD might not sell something like the Seagull in the US because it’s smaller than most cars Americans buy. They’d probably build plants in the US instead, or its free-trade zone partners Canada and Mexico, to build vehicles tailored for Americans. “If you’re going to really enter a market, you have to make it locally,” Helveston explains. “US automakers like GM sell and make millions of cars in China to sell in China.” BYD would do the same. Indeed, it’s already reportedly scouting sites for factories in Mexico.

If they ever were to set up shop in North America, BYD and other Chinese car companies would still have a major price advantage versus American EVs. They have years more experience and a much more successful track record of building batteries and EVs at low cost.

“Part of why they’re so successful is they’ve been thinking outside the box on cost reduction for a long time,” Mazzocco says. They took the “opposite of the Tesla approach”: starting not with luxury vehicles but ultra-cheap cars fit for taxi fleets and not much else, and constantly improving their early inexpensive prototypes. The result is that Chinese firms have gotten extremely good at making inexpensive EVs, at a time when Ford, by contrast, lost $28,000 for every EV it sold in 2023.[...]

“If you have more affordable EVs in the United States, no matter where you come from,” Gopal says, “that’s better for the climate.”

Still, the Biden administration reportedly wants to restrict Chinese car companies’ access to the US even if they do set up shop in North America. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the Biden administration is formulating rules that would limit US sales of Chinese-made parts, even if they’re in vehicles ultimately assembled in the US or Mexico.[...]

But the Biden administration’s objections to Chinese EVs are also ideological. The Biden administration represents the victory of a protectionist, trade-skeptical wing of the Democratic party that was relegated to the sidelines during the Clinton and Obama years.[...]

[O]ver 90 percent of American households have a car, and surging car prices were a huge contributor to the 2021–2023 rise in inflation.

Barriers to importing cheap cars make inflation worse and reduce the real incomes of the middle class.

Not only are the administration and other left-leaning institutions opposed to Chinese EVs, but hardline conservatives at places like the Heritage Foundation are calling for outright bans on Chinese EVs as well. Their rationale is security, another theme the Biden administration evokes often. On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced it was beginning a process to “investigate the national security risks of … PRC-manufactured technology in [internet-connected] vehicles.”

6 Mar 24

[redsrooftopprincess]

When do you think Raph makes love to you and when does he give it to you rough and make you whimper with your tongue out?

Hope this is okay, sorry it took so long. Asks are going sloooooowwwww.... 😅

Hot Blood

AFAB Fem Reader x Raphael

Warnings: Violence, Smut, Property Damage 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Raphael is a creature of extremes.

He's the biggest and the strongest on the street, and the softest when he hangs up his gear. He'll push you to the limit in the weight room like a god damn drill instructor, and then praise you and kiss away all your soreness the next morning.

When the two of you finally figure your shit out ("two years, we could have been doing this for TWO YEARS 😫"), you discover pretty quickly that that particular personality trait also extends to the bedroom.

There's is very little middle ground with him. Either he's worshipping you, or he's fucking you into the mattress, and there is no in between. "Casual sex" is something he's heard about, but he doesn't really understand. Like taxes. He gets that it's a thing that happens to other people, but he's pretty sure he's happier not knowing any more about it.

You certainly are.

In the beginning he treated you like you were made of glass. You pretty much had to do all the work until he was comfortable enough with the whole process, and more importantly, until he could be sure he wasn't going to hurt you.

Calloused hands, sliding rough against your soft abdomen, pulling shivers from your skin that you can feel within your fingertips. That same hand between your legs, pressing you against him as he moves in you. Giving as much to you as he is taking.

The quiet strength and precision reminding you, even in the moment, of the dichotomy that these same hands are capable of terrible things.

He had one rule about bringing work home: "Don't." He was never rough with you because he never wanted you to see that side of him. It's the same reason that, no matter how many times you begged, he wouldn't take you out on patrol.

Then you were mugged. We're not going to talk about what happened to the muggers, but it did involve an argument over how many bodies could fit in a trash compactor. It was decided after that you needed to at least learn how to defend yourself.

You'd started training and eventually became skilled enough that you convinced the boys to let you come out on patrol with them.

It had been a slow night, and the lot of you were just about ready to head back to the lair, much to Raphael's relief. He really didn't want you out here in the first place, but everyone else has been helping with your training, and they all seemed to think you were ready. He did too, he just wished you weren't so damn excited about it.

You were just looping back around towards the garage when an alert pinged on Donnie's watch.

"We've got Foot activity. Twelve blocks south."

You brightened up while Raph's stomach twisted. You spun and looked up at Leo.

"Can we go?" You asked excitedly.

He was hesitant, "Street thugs are one thing, (Y/N), but the Foot..."

"Please?"

He cringes, inhaling through his teeth.

Fine. We'll do this the hard way.

"Please? Please can we go? Please? Please Leo? Please? Please can we go? Please? Please? Please? Not gonna stop till you say yes. Please Leo? Please? Please? Plea-"

"OKAY FINE! "

"Yay!" You clap your hands and bounce like a five-year-old. Raph tenses as you make for the Southern edge of the rooftop.

Leo turns to Casey. "Is this what it's like having a little sister?"

"Yes." Casey replies deadpan, not looking at Leo, as he exhaustedly watches his sister parkour her way to the adjacent rooftop.

That was the night Raphael got a taste of how much you could take. There were a few sticky moments, but creativity and quick thinking got you out of them without issue.

At one point he stopped fighting entirely just to watch you, agape.

After the fight was over, and all the way back home, he was quiet. Not silent, he wasn't rude or off-putting, but he gripped your hand tightly, and said very little. You assumed he was upset about the fact that you were in the fight at all.

That night, after you were both cleaned up, you were sitting on the bathroom counter with him treating your split lip. He was still quiet.

He dabbed at your mouth with antiseptic, not meeting your eyes. You reached up and wrapped a small hand around his wrist to still his movements.

"Are you upset with me?" You asked. You were worried about this, that he would have a problem with you being out there. He never wanted you involved in this part of his life.

He twisted his hand to take your wrist and kissed it, still not looking at you. "No," he'd said softly, before returning the hand to your lap and finishing his work.

Five and a half minutes later, you were walking into your bedroom and he was closing the door behind you.

Once the lock engaged, he placed a hand on the seam between the door and the wall and remained with his back to you. You could see his deep breathing in the rise and fall of his carapace, and the muscles in his shoulders flexed with tension.

"Raph...?" You ventured, hesitantly.

He doesn't move.

"Listen, I know you said you're not upset, but I really feel like maybe we should talk about... oh."

He turned to face you, dark eyes almost flashing in the dim light, and he said nothing, but you could feel the seismic churr in your feet.

A smile tugged at the corner of your mouth, "So... you're not mad, then."

"No..." he said, with his own hidden smile, tossing his towel in the corner without taking his eyes off of you, "not mad..."

This was new, the way he looked at you. Like you were an opponent he was sizing up. You felt his eyes scan over every inch of you. When you shifted your weight, his hands twitched, and you could almost feel them gripping your skin.

The way you fight is so unlike he and his brothers, even though they were the ones who taught you. They have the benefit of strength and size over many of their opponents, but you're fast, and you're clever.

He watched you lead three guys in a dance of such spectacular violence that they ended up bloody without you having to hand a single blow. And when you finally did connect, a smirk turned his lip at the memory and heat flooded his veins, that guy hit the ground hard.

Then you got hit, and he'd immediately taken a fist to the jaw as everything in his mind came to a screeching halt. You hit the ground almost in slow motion and he could smell the blood from your split lip.

Before he could even react, you'd swept that fucker's legs out from under him, and jumped on him, breaking his nose and slamming his head back onto the concrete twice.

Every breath was a bellows as he replayed the fight, watching you dance, and he could feel the blood in his veins boiling.

You didn't stop. You were brutal. Like a tiny whirlwind tearing through the alley. Once it was all over, you looked around, seeming almost disappointed that there were none left. And when you turned your eyes to him with that smug look of self satisfaction...

Fucking hell.

He strode the four steps to you, and you stood your ground, holding his gaze as he grabbed you by the ass and hoisted you up so that your legs were around his waist. He didn't brake stride as you were slammed against the wall and kissed hard.

Picture frames rattled against the wall, and you were vaguely aware of the sound of something shattering below you. His large hands gripped your thighs as he growled and ground himself into you. The realization that there would most likely be bruises later sent white fire spreading through your core.

You pushed off of the wall in a way he wasn't expecting and he stumbled back, falling into the bed and pulling you with him. You straddled his waist and kissed him back just as hard before looking down at him with a wicked smirk at catching him off guard.

A shiver shot down your spine as his eyes narrowed. Before you could react, he hooked his hand under your leg and flipped you on to your stomach, the violent action sending something on the bedside table crashing to the floor. It almost knocked the wind out of you and you clenched around nothing as you landed with a loud grunt.

Reaching up to the waistband of your already soaked pajama shorts, he removed them in one fluid motion before lifting your ass up and pressing his tongue against your folds.

You gasped loudly as his churr reverberated through you. His tongue was relentless. This wasn't foreplay, you'd already done that bit in the alley, this was quick and dirty preparation and nothing more. You could feel his impatience in the way he rutted into the mattress, gripping you hard.

You nearly collapsed as your orgasm crashed over you, his bruising grip being the only thing holding you up.

Giving you no time to recover, he flipped you over, and ripped the drawer from the nightstand, grabbing a spare pocket knife as the drawer crashed somewhere out of sight. A flick of his wrist and your tank top was sliced open and torn from your body. He stopped for just a moment to look down at you, eyes on fire as he drank you in.

But it was just a moment. Lining himself up at your entrance, he buried himself inside you with a groan, before pumping in and out slowly a few times, until your body relaxed around him.

Once he felt you relax, the wicked smirk he gave you made you shiver. Hooking a leg over his hip, he began driving into you so hard the bedframe slammed against the wall. There was another shattering sound and the room was bathed in darkness as the lamp crashed to the ground.

You grabbed hold of the top lip of his plastron and hooked your other leg around his waist, before lifting yourself off the bed and riding him until he rolled both of you over so that you were on top.

Wrapping his hands around your waist, he held you aloft and fucked into you, and the sharp cries of pleasure that he ripped from you only spurred him on. You made a note to find a way to make patrol a regular thing, but that was your last conscious thought before he hit a spot so deep inside you you swear you saw stars being born.

You became a being of pure sensation, every powerful thrust sending you screaming further and faster toward your second release.

Head tipped back and veins in his neck bulging, he growled through clenched teeth. It rumbled through him like an earthquake, sending tremors through you that sent you into the stratosphere.

You didn't even have the presence of mind to warn him before liquid fire shot down your spine. You cried out as it tore through you, and you swear it felt like you were the star being born.

His grip tightened as you clenched around him and he followed suit, your name tearing from his throat in a roar as you milked him dry.

When you came down, you were both breathing hard, and gripping each other tightly. You remained in his lap and he pressed his forehead to yours, "You okay...?" He asked, nervously, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

You shook your head and couldn't help the soft laughter that escaped you, "No..." As you lifted your head and gazed up at him, the glare of early morning light against shattered glass caught your attention and you looked around. "Oh... Oh dear..."

You both took a moment to survey the carnage. It looked like a bomb went off. Shattered glass, ceramic, and splintered wood littered the carpet, there was a hole in the wall behind the bedframe, which was now crooked and probably fully broken, and there were no framed pictures left on the wall.

You met his eyes and he seemed afraid you were going to be mad. But how could you be mad? If this wasn't the best fucking metaphor for your relationship you'd ever come across.

He'd ruined your life completely, in the best possible ways.

You couldn't help it. You started laughing. And you couldn't stop. And then he joined in and you were both laughing with tears streaming down your faces and you kissed him. You kissed him like he's the last person you will ever kiss, and if you have your way he will be.

But that was a *later* conversation. Still is.

For now, your happy enough to just continue to let him be the best of both worlds.

....

You turn your back, you're a broken man

You come around and just dying to shake your hand

I don't expect you to understand

Just keep telling yourself there's no shame

They don't know 'bout who we are

They don't know 'bout you and I

They ain't know 'bout the stars of your eyes

Oh hot blood love is gonna get ya

You wanna prove you're the better man

You wanna reach for the things that nobody can

Oh all you need is to break away, yeah

Just keep telling yourself there's no shame

They don't know 'bout who we are

They don't know 'bout you and I

They ain't know 'bout the stars of your eyes

Oh hot blood love is gonna get ya

Hot Blood, Kaleo

...

Tag list:

@thelaundrybitch @the-cauldron-witch @fyreball66 @ninnosaurus @tmntngl @thegirlwiththeninjaturtletattoos @zagreustomb @ramielll @silverwatergalaxy @gornackeaterofworlds @footninja

[lexirosewrites]

Slick Sunday!

Since you're making the move to be a middle school teacher and I myself am in the process of getting my license and doing my student teaching I've been thinking about Teacher Alpha Eddie and Family Resource Room Coordinator Omega Steve this week.

Steve who doesn't get into any colleges and doesn't really have the desire to pursue college anyway but wants to support the pups he babysits (the party) when they make the transition to middle school (they're a couple years younger than in canon for plot reasons) so he uses his parent's money to donate some new equipment for the AV Club and some board games the kids like for the library.

To his surprise, his parents are completely fine with this development because they can mark those off as charitable donations for tax purposes so Steve just...keeps doing it. His parents aren't really around and the pups are the only pack he really has since he stopped hanging around Tommy, Carol, and the rest of his jock friends in his Junior year so he's extra attached to them, and sometimes his instincts so a little haywire and he's prone to overdoing it when it comes to taking care of his pack.

So he starts spending more and more money on the school. New desks and science equipment and books and he starts to think, hey, I've been trying to think of ways to help the Byers, Hendersons, and Mayfeilds who struggle financially sometimes but they never let me, what if I just...let them think the school is providing resources for families without my contributions. So he does. He starts a food pantry and a clothing closet and starts going out to meet people in the community who provide other family support services and makes a resource kiosk for the office with flyers and applications for family services.

Eventually, the school reaches out and offers him an office and a small salary to do his work full time since at this point his parents are still making him work a part-time job so imagine what he could do full time! He jumps on the offer and gets to spend his days applying for grants and helping families and pups who need him and he feels like he finally has a purpose. He moves out of his parents' house and stops using their money and finally feels content with himself even if he doesn't have the mate and pups he dreamed of having at this stage in his life.

Que the hiring of one Eddie Munson at Hawkins Middle following a failed try at the rockstar life in Chicago. He crashed and burned hard and he's come home to lick his wounds in the familiar comfort of his uncle and only pack mate Wayne's home. He sulks for a good couple of months before Wayne pulls him up out of his depression den by the ear and formally introduces him to the Omega he's been courting for the past year, Scott Clarke, who works at the middle school and is helping set up an after school music program at the school and has recommended Eddie as the guitar instructor.

Eddie is hesitant at first. School and him don't exactly have the best relationship but he agrees to come to an informal meeting with all the potential instructors and he is surprised to find that they are all really cool actually. Chrissy is sweet and excellent at the piano and Robin is a total badass and can apparently play just about any brass or wind instrument out there. The thing that seals the deal though is the arrival of an absolutely stunning Omega. He's tall and built with freckles and beauty marks placed by the hand of a loving god all across his body and Eddie is immediately smitten. He is disappointed to learn that he won't be one of the instructors and is just stopping in to pick up Robin to take her home to their shared apartment, but his hope is renewed when they leave the room and Chrissy leans over to tell him the mystery man, who he discovers is named Steve, works in the school and is single.

He accepts the job before he leaves the building.

I could go on and on but this is already long so I'll leave it here lol.

this so sweet i’m gonna die���😭😭💕

[mysticheathenn]

Messages From Your Mental Prison

Hi, Hexlings!

This pick-a-card reading is about your mental health and the state of how you view the world and everything that is going on in your life. This could be about your depression, Anxiety, or even suicidal thoughts. Read with caution as this reading may have triggers.

This is a general reading, remember to take what resonates and leave what does not. This reading does not supplement your need to seek professional help. Tarot should be used as entertainment and not a for sure answer to your problems but as a guide, a sense of hope, and amusement.

Take your time when choosing your pile. Ask yourself the question and choose the picture that you can’t stop looking at. Listen to your intuition.

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TW Ahead Read With Caution

Pile l:

Messages From Your Mental Prison. Tarot: 8 of Pentacles (Reversed), 9 of Swords, 4 of Swords (reversed), 10 of Cups (reversed), Justice

This reminds me of the TikTok clip of the voice screaming "It's not fair. It's not fair." reminding me of how many people have probably told you that you handle stress and everyday life so well but little do they know your mental state is literally one inconvenience away from having a mental breakdown. Stress and anxiety practically camp out in your mind on a daily basis pile l. You can't seem to escape it, it's all you have known for quite a while and you're tired. There is a saying that "There is no sleep for the wicked" Well in your case "There is no sleep for the poor or those who lack the resources to pull themselves up in their life." All you want in life is enough to pay your bills and a little extra for savings and be able to do something with your life like try a new hobby without feeling guilty for spending money that isn't on "important" things like survival. You probably have been in survival mode for quite some time now and wondering when will you see a breakthrough. You're tired of being tired. You're tired of practically playing Russian roulette with your bills of which one can you not pay for this month. One thing I will say pile l is even though things may seem bleak please don't give up, I sense things will get better financially for you. Sometimes in life you just need to find your footing for things to take off.

Extra Messages: Tea Tree Leaf Oracle: Seek out information that will help you out, A Journey either physical or mental, unsettled times. Need to plan ahead, Announcement, Get back to the basics.

Pile l your extra message oracles make me believe that you feel lost, maybe even stuck for some of you with no clue in the world of how to better your situation or go about life. You have the get back to the basics card which sticks out to me like a sore thumb letting the game know that I sense you may be the type who always tries to do those get-rich-and-quick schemes like drop shipping or anything else you see that pops up on your social media feed and it never works out for whatever reason. You want to know why....it's because you aren't supposed to be doing that. That's not your path to riches. You have the 8 of Pentacles and 10 of Cups card but it's reversed meaning you are meant to have emotional and financial fulfillment you just need to stop and get back to the basics. What basics mystic? What is it that has been drawing or calling you in? What is something you keep putting off or not doing because you believe based on society and family it won't make you any money? For most of you, this is what you need to be doing. For others of you, you will be going on a journey where you need to find this out. Figure out what feeds your soul that you would do for free and do that but add tax. You are meant to freelance and be your own boss, not working for other people. Overall this is a journey process for you pile l. You will deal with more hard times as you figure this out but remember this journey is temporary to where you want to be, so keep pushing. An answer if it hasn't already will come to you.

Pile ll:

Messages From Your Mental Prison. Tarot: The Hermit, Page of Swords (reversed), Queen of Cups, 10 of Wands, 10 of Swords (reversed)

When was the last time you nurtured yourself or spent time alone and really tried to heal and nurture yourself with positive thoughts pile ll. It's a never-ending cycle of you constantly bombarding yourself with cruel words that aren't true. This reminds me slightly of the reading I posted titled Mystery pt. ll. But overall this feeling of yours feels more so as if the world has its weight on your shoulders and you feel as if you are a burden to those around you. You may live at home, with roommates, or feel that you constantly are asking anyone and everyone around you for help as if you can't do anything for yourself and you're tired. You're ready to be able to be independent without having to rely on others. Maybe others have made you feel bad as well for asking for help when you are down on your luck to where you just feel crushed, stuck, unable to move in a direction because one way people will make you feel bad for your predicament and the other hand you will make yourself feel bad because you feel whatever this is you should be able to do by yourself but can't because life is tough right now. As I mentioned in pile l you need to get back to the basics. Get back to the basics of life and take things one step at a time. You are doing the best you can with what you have and don't let anyone make you feel bad about that.

Extra Messages: Tea Tree Leaf Oracle: Position of authority, August, Someone you know is undependable and insincere, Slowly but surely getting ahead. Pay attention to your work, Good Fortune.

As mentioned your life while it maybe chaotic at the moment everything is a journey and slowly but surely things will get better and you will get ahead eventually. With the Position of authority I am seeing this in two ways some of you should pay attention to your work as there may be a position available for you in management where you can make more money this may happen around or sometime in August. If not within the company you work maybe this is an invitation to be your own boss or look elsewhere for higher positions especially if you have more than enough qualifications. For others of you, this position of authority is letting you know that you are the boss of your own life and have complete control of what goes on and who is in it. Never let people who claim to be friends or family make you feel bad for being on hard times. They aren't who they say they are and you should move accordingly with that information. Overall Good Fortune is in your cards by the end of this rough patch. You just need to focus and hone in on ways you can do more within your life with the resources of which you have. Again this could be moving up in the company or going elsewhere, where advancement is an option.

Pile lll:

Messages From Your Mental Prison. Tarot: The Star, The Sun, Ace of Pentacles (reversed), The Fool (reversed), Awakening

Pile lll, my babies, it's time to allow yourself to be seen by the world. It's time to stop hiding in the shadows allowing life to pass you by. You can't keep yourself in the mental prison of feelings of imposter syndrome, fear of judgment, etc. Life wants to give you financial blessings, especially with the Ace of Pentacles in Reversed but you are blocking them because you aren't doing what needs to be done. This could be you starting a YouTube channel, being a content creator on social media, writing a book or screenplay/ maybe even fanfiction for some of you, others this might just be you hiding from a promotion that you deeply desire but feel you lack experience, knowledge, etc. Whatever this is for you, you have to release the thoughts that plague your mind and go for the thing that puts you in front of everyone. Yes at first you may make mistakes or look cringe or whatever the issue may be but that's how everything is when you first jump deep into something. You make mistakes and people will talk...but you want to know something life moves on and the world doesn't end. Seriously do the thing, it's time. You will beat yourself up if others take the things that you want for yourself and you want to know something you have no one to blame but yourself because you decided to not do what needs to be done. Write the book. Film yourself. Apply for better jobs even if you think you are not qualified. Have you heard of the girl who applied to jobs she had no business doing and ended up getting hired making $100k a year...that could be you right now but you are stuck listening to self-doubt and the thoughts of what others will say. Storytime: I knew that I didn't want to continue working at whatever job I was working at back in 2015 so when my friend and I figured out that employers don't check a lot of your information we applied for positions that would pay us well and you want to know something the resume I lied on got me so far in life to where I was Assistant GM of hotels at one point. All because I believed I could do what others were doing in the hotel industry even without a lick of experience. Did I mess up in the beginning, yes. Did I care...no because I was doing more good than harm so no one really questioned if I lied or not. You have to take the jump. Do the thing.

Extra Messages: Tea Tree Leaf Oracle: Short Journey, Back to Basics, Work achievement & success, TIME TO ACT, Someone is extremely stubborn and unwilling to change, Protected from negative forces beyond your control, Solid foundation success with effort, waiting for news package or letter, A meeting with a strange could be important.

Pile lll do you see the amount of synchronicities in your oracle reading. Spirit is coming through loud and clear that you need to get out of your stubbornness and began acting on your dreams, goals, and desires. You are protected from anything that could try and take what this is away from you. Even with a solid foundation success with effort is telling you "Hey if you do the thing you will not fail because you are protected." Now this goes without saying that you won't deal with some challenges because that's life what it is saying is you will come out on top and the journey for you won't be a long one if you just do the effort that it takes. Spirit will do the rest if you just do what needs to be done.

Pile lV:

Messages From Your Mental Prison. Tarot: The Empress, Queen of Pentacles, 5 of Swords (reversed), 8 of Swords (reversed), 6 of Wands

You are victorious pile lV your only problem is that you don't believe you are worth a pot to piss in a lot of the time. Even with the Empress and Queen of Pentacles card here letting me know how nurturing, giving, empathetic, and even resourceful you are you don't see any good things about yourself. You remind me of people who speak negatively about themselves not knowing that their actions speak the opposite. You can't say you don't care but your actions speak another language. You can't put yourself down but then be upset when life mirrors your thoughts. Deep down you know how amazing you are and the many great things that you can do, but for some strange reason you recently for some of you while others of you this has been going on for a while where you constantly hold yourself to such a low standard and critic everything that you do. Why is that? Where did it begin? How can you remove this person or thing that made you feel this way? For some of you, this may have been a relationship (platonic, romantic, or familial) that made you feel self-critical of yourself because they felt something about themselves. You must remember that when people speak unkind things to you that it's a reflection of themselves and not you. You don't have to take what others think of you and run with it as if they are true because they are not. A scene that comes to mind is when the mom in Black Swan says "What happened to my little girl?" What happened to you that made you feel and think these thoughts to yourself and how can you get back to the Empress and Queen of Pentacle energy.

Extra Messages: Manifestation Oracle Cards: Wellbeing, Empowerment, Strength

How can you today give yourself the love that you deserve? Is it a DIY spa day? A trip to a therapist or talk with a trusted friend? How can you show up for yourself in ways that you haven't before that will make you see the person you are? Have the strength and courage to stand up to anyone who makes you feel any less than what and who you are. For a few of you, you may be a part of the LBGTQ+ community and others around you have made you feel different, a "freak" or whatever insecurity that you question your existence. There is a quote by Elenor Roosevelt that says "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Please don't let assholes who were raised by baboons let you lower yourself or feel anything less than amazing, beautiful, and authentically you. Regardless of how you feel about yourself find something in your life, day, or something as small as a freckle on your face that you love and keep bringing more of that energy in for you and keep your head up. This feeling is only temporary, things will get better.

Thank you for liking and reblogging my readings. I always appreciate you guys on here and on Patreon.

Stay safe and be blessed

[mayakern]

upcoming store stuff & why we're doing a super sale

omg hiiii it's devin again, and this time i'm bringing store news

the short version: we're moving ourselves back to minnesota, and we're moving order fulfillment to a fulfillment center

wow, that's big news! maya and i are so so so excited to be closer to our minnesota friends (and also my family lol). i'm hoping to be back in northeast minneapolis, but let's be real we're probably gonna get priced out and into the suburbs

in addition to that, due to a variety of reasons i'll explain in more detail below, we're transitioning from in-house fulfillment to working with a fulfillment center (or 3pl, short for third-party logistics). we're at an awkward size that makes staffing difficult and have had issues with extended processing time. the 3pl should be set up by september, and we're working on the back end to have fulfillment centers in australia, canada, the UK, and eventually the EU. if tax authorities work with us we should have all that ready by december 2024!

to prepare for that we're doing a super sale. ash told me not to call it liquidation but she said that like 30 seconds after i hit send on the marketing email, sorry about that. items that we don't want to pay to move to the 3pl are discounted by 25-70%, with some of them priced at cost. under no circumstances will anything ever be 70% off again

if you're nosy you can read the q&a i made up in my head while eating pigs in a blanket:

how are the labor protections at the 3pl?

pretty good! we were shocked to find anything even halfway decent in the US; we went looking for a fulfillment center in the EU to handle all international fulfillment, and the one we found just so happened to have bought a US location two years ago.

they're located in ohio, pay $19/hr, and provide health insurance and 401k matching. that seemed too good to be true so we dug through employee reviews on places like glassdoor, and while there were some bad reviews those were all dated prior to when the facility was purchased by this new company. they also have a very low turnover rate which is a HUGE green flag

why are you transferring to a 3pl?

the serious

sometimes we have a high volume of sales, and it makes sense to have two full-time employees plus a part timer! but usually we have a low-to-medium volume of sales. we can float by on that, but it gets risky, and the economy is in a bad enough state that we're concerned about the longevity

related, the 2023 holiday sale showed us some major flaws in our fulfillment process. if the same issues were to happen this year the business probably wouldn't survive

we're moving cross-country in early 2025 and would've had to close this location anyway

the dumb:

i'm sick of dealing with commercial landlords and if i have one more wall leak i'm going to throw it into the river brick by brick

what about your staff?

unfortunately we will have to say goodbye to our office staff. they have been given 3.5 months notice and no-questions-asked PTO for interviews with a small severance

why are you moving back to minnesota?

troy was always meant to be a temporary move. initially the plan was to move to vermont or massachusetts, but after being out here for 7 years we just kinda want to go home. the weather in troy is perfect for us, we love the mountains, and we have some great friends here, but for some goddamn reason we want our eyelashes to freeze together.

will you be returning to midwest cons?

if we return to cons at all it will be with ariel and/or ash running the booth, maya will not be involved. this would likely be in california and/or in the northeast US.

my friends are begging me to go to CONvergence as an attendee so ig you might see me there? maya has pledged death before crowded venues tho

will you do any local events in minnesota?

we might do sample sales. honestly idk what we're gonna do with the samples we have in troy, most of them are terrible. do you want samples of the strangest low rise bell bottom pants ever created? please take them from me. my bush hangs out

also my kid brother has gotten really into library events and if he asks nice enough we might do some of those

is there anything else?

i mean probably, but i started this last week and i haven't had any other ideas on what to include

[learnastrowallura]

💜The 8th House in Astrology💜

The source if this information is The Astrology Podcast (Chris Brennan) on Youtube and from the book The Twelve Houses: Exploring the Houses of the Horoscope by Howard Sasportas and I will add a personal example as well

8th house: the occult, loss, taxes, loans, debt, inheritance, banking, accounting, investment expertise, others' finances, others's values, shared assets/values, merging, sexual intimacy, transformation, regeneration, the hidden, the unconscious, mediums, spirits, ancestral work, shadow work, trauma, fear, death, giving things, succedent

What we inherit (money, knowledge, family heirlooms, businesses, assets etc), our relationship with other people's money, how well off financially or in terms of value systems are our partners, how we set boundaries in terms of intimate relationships, our sexual nature, the themes that trigger transformations in our lifetime and how we handle that type of chaos and regenerative process, how we process and handle our fears particularly relating to loss, what kind of destructive thoughts/behaviors we might have or face sometimes, our relationship with our shadow self etc

Personal example: Gemini in an empty 8th house

I have an empty 8th house so it seems that the topics mentioned at the start are not so significant for me, however I am a Scorpio rising so my whole life is "transformative" lol it is just less emphasized like this I suppose

As for Gemini in my 8th house for me, it could indicate an innate ability to advise people on what to do with their money? This was purely an intuitive interpretation tho and since there is no emphasis on my natal 8th house I will let it go for now

What I have witnessed in the past as well is that I've always had a talent for helping people have breakthroughs; however with my Sagittarius energy and Mercury conjunct Pluto I may have come accross as too blunt and intense, and so this has only worked in situations in which the person knew me kind of well/trusted me and/or for some reason was not fazed by my intense energy and demeanor (Note: I have an Aries moon too lol)

With introspection and communicating my thoughts to others I can trigger transformative phases in my life whether good or bad but the main point is my relationships dictate a lot whether it is a start, end, break etc it always affects me and somehow feels like a shedding of my old self which very much aligns with the concept of death and rebirth in my opinion

Another thing to note is that the conjunction between my Mercury (8th house ruler) and Pluto (my chart ruler) takes place in my 2nd house of finances which makes me think that this theme in particular is quite important for me

Oh and rn I'm 19 so I am in my 8th house profection year and I'm healing from past connections that kept me stuck in life as well holding myself accountable for everything which has been cool like lots of ups and downs for sure but I do feel reborn and close friends have noticed and have been talking to me about the transformation as well haha I am receiving a lot of recognition, affection and praise <3

I might make a post resuming profection years in my own style/perspective soon but @lilacstro has posted about in detail already so check that out here x

Thank you for reading <3

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[nayatarot777]

Lilith in Scorpio/8th house

this is intuitive astrology. meaning that i’m making these notes based on what i intuitively pick up about this astrological point being merged with these signs. take it with a grain of salt and understand that you might not relate to everything that i get from your placement 🖤

Astrology Masterlist

scorpio/8th house themes are always surrounding the taboo areas of life: death + birth/rebirth, trauma, debt + taxes, other people’s assets that they give to you (like an inheritance, for example), conscious secrets and fears (not secrets and fears like what you find in pisces/12th house - you don’t realise exist. 8th house secrets and fears are those that you consciously know about but don’t talk about), intimacy, sexuality, shared resources, and power and control.

the first thing that i think of when i see this placement is people shaming you for your traumas. the people who literally get victim blamed for the ways that they’ve been abused, shamed, and oppressed.

you could’ve experienced shame towards the way that you grieve too. towards someone’s death or your own trauma. for some reason, people love to shame you out of purging very real and very valid emotions during the grieving process.

your lilith energy is potent in scorpio/8th house. since this sign and house is the area of taboos, people could literally treat you like you’re a taboo yourself. as if you’re a topic of conversation that shouldn’t be touched on.

this placement could make a lot of people fear you as taboos and the unknown are usually feared - therefore avoided.

^ that’s another point. you’ve probably experienced people avoiding you like the plague. simply because your energy seems ‘dangerous’ or scary in some way.

an obsession with the taboos of society - sex, death, murder - anything that you can think of that society would look at you like you’re crazy for freely talking about.

also indicates a lot of obsession with anything occult. occultism could be where you find your personal power. where you channel your rage from all of the times that you were scapegoated, oppressed, and abused. for example: someone who send dark and baneful magic to those who’ve fucked with them.

you guys have the most potent energy of a man-eater if you’re a woman. this isn’t like lilith in the 1st house/aries in which men will see you as their opponent to challenge. you’re literally seen by them as woman who are threats. threats that they can’t fight or dominate because they wouldn’t even know how to oppose you.

^ again, your feminine energy is one big taboo. and taboos are never ventured into. it’s like trying to fight the darkness. or a ghost. something that you know of but don’t understand and don’t want to. men could never.

if you find yourself suppressing this energy, then you’ll find yourself meeting people and falling victim to people (especially men) who are the worst human beings that you could imagine. murderous-type people. the people who could cause you serious harm. and these are usually men who you end up merging with heavily in relationships (as this is the sign/house of intimacy).

you could face a double dose of shame from yourself for the secrets that you know you carry. especially if they’re sexual secrets.

your sexuality could be very taboo too. i said this in the lilith in taurus/2nd house observations - lilith in scorpio/8th house is a placement that could indicate prostitution. actually having sex with clients in exchange for money, and not just using sex appeal or the image of sex to make money.

^ but random, but if you have lilith in gemini in the 8th house, or your lilith placement just has aspects to 3rd house planets/mercury, you could lead a double life that involves you selling sexual content online. and nobody knows about this.

this placement is also a placement that makes me think of people who marry rich people for the sake of gaining that inheritance money after their spouse dies. you know the young women who marry old men who are knocking at death’s door? yeah 😂

you find a lot of shame from others for your sexuality but a lot of power too. could be into power dynamics in your relationships/deep sexual relationships - like BDSM dynamics.

you have the power to manipulate people into giving you their money/possessions and assets through your sexuality. doesn’t even have to be through sex itself because your sexual energy is POTENT. you hold power over other people’s shit.

you could fear showing femininity in a way. just because you know that - considering the world we live in - femininity is not viewed as something powerful by men. and lilith in scorpio/8th house is all about holding onto power. therefore, you may keep your feminine side a secret to yourself.

could’ve experienced the most shame in long term relationships, after marriage, etc. after you gain a certain level of intimacy with someone, that person turns around and shames you.

and that’s why lilith here is a very prominent placement for experiencing extremely heavy-hitting betrayals. therefore gaining a huge fear of intimacy and being betrayed again.

your sexuality could be very dark. adding onto the sexual secrets, you could have secret kinks and fetishes that you feel like the average person would shame you and demonise you heavily for.