#the tariffs were hell

[bellsblargbin]

i hope they riot again but against him and not for him

[andragoras-in-vanity]

i think im about to get to watch my government shut off the americans power and like....this whole situation is stupid and dangerous but its also just so fucking funny.

put tariff on us? okay we'll stop selling american beer and also new york and Pennsylvania can deal with the dark

[friskyfreddie2024]

America: You Fucked Up

You could have chosen Hope. You chose Hate.

You could have chosen Empathy. You chose Enmity.

You could have chosen a New Beginning. You chose the Nazi.

We could have finally been rid of this cancer on American democracy. He could have been banished to obscurity, remembered only as the worst president in American history, and finally held responsible for his numerous crimes.

The ignorant, racist, misogynistic, white supremacist, pathologicial liar is now going back to the White House. He is a convicted felon, an admitted sexual predator, a total fraud, and a demented old man. He belongs in prison.

What did you do?

You ignored that the U.S. economy is the strongest in the world, that inflation is at its lowest level in four years, that unemployment is at its lowest level in three years. You believed the lies about how terrible the economy is. I knew better.

You forgot about his 30,000+ lies while he was in office. I remember.

You forgot about his complete mismanagement and ignorance over COVID, resulting in the deaths of over one million Americans. I remember.

You forgot about the saber rattling over military exercises in the pacific, when Kim Jong Un threatened us with nuclear missiles, causing us to fear whether we'd see another day. I remember.

You forgot about waking up every morning dreading to hear the latest abomination he tweeted. I remember.

You forgot about "very fine people on both sides." I remember.

You forgot about "only the best people" like Betsy DeVos, Rick Perry, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, Steve Mnuchin, and many others who were given cabinet positions despite having zero qualifications for the job. I remember.

You forgot that 40 of his former cabinet members and dozens of former generals and officials refused to support him, saying he was "unfit to serve." I remember.

You forgot about January 6, "fight like hell". I remember.

You forgot that when he was told that his vice president was secured because the rioters wanted to kill him, he said, "So what?" I remember

You forgot about The Big Lie, "Release the Kraken" and 60+ failed attempts to overturn the election in the courts. I remember.

You forgot about "I just need you to find 11,780 votes." I remember.

You forgot about "They're eating the cats! They're eating the dogs!" I remember.

What now?

When a woman suffering an ectopic pregnancy dies because she doesn't have access to medical care, that's on you.

When they take away your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend, and deport them, that's on you.

When a woman is forced to suffer the agony of carrying her rapist's baby to term, that's on you.

When a transgender kid harms themselves because they can't get the medical care they need, that's on you.

When your middle-class taxes GO UP, while billionaires get even more tax breaks, that's on you.

When schoolchildren are killed by an assault rifle in a mass shooting, that's on you.

When children grow up ignorant because you banned books and dictated how history is taught, that's on you.

When Grandma can no longer afford a comfortable life because the Social Security she paid into all her working life, and provided income on which she now depends, has been cut, that's on you.

When violence against Jews, Asians, Hispanics rises again, that's on you.

When prices on the goods you buy skyrocket due to tariffs, that's on you.

When Ukraine, deprived of our support, is overrun by Russia, that's on you.

When the U.S. is the laughing stock of the world (as we were 2016-2020), that's on you.

What should you have done?

You should have exercised critical thinking skills, recognized the thousands of lies you were being told, recalled that his administration had four years to live up to his promises and failed at all of them. You should have realized that he is a profoundly stupid individual who doesn't give a shit about you or your family or anything except himself.

You had the last nine years to see that, and you still fell for his bullshit.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

Donald Trump mocked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him the "Governor" of the "Great State of Canada" in a late-night post on his corrupt Truth Social platform. "It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada," Trump posted at 12:06 a.m. ET on Tuesday. "I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on Tariffs and Trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!"

Trump was referring to a comment he made to Trudeau during a dinner the duo had at Mar-a-Lago—Trump's hideously gaudy Florida club where he improperly stored classified documents in a bathroom—about how Canada should become America's 51st state if the 25% tariff Trump is threatening to impose on Canadian goods were to kill the country's economy. Trump's unhinged Truth Social taunt appears to be a response to a comment Trudeau made on Monday, vowing to retaliate if Trump levies a tariff on Canadian products. “Trump got elected on a commitment to make life better and more affordable for Americans, and I think people south of the border are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive,” Trudeau said, according to the Associated Press. Trump is hell-bent on imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, describing the tariffs as a punishment for the undocumented immigrants and drugs coming into the United States across the borders with the two countries. 

Trump has falsely said that Canada and Mexico would pay the tariffs. However, it’s actually paid by the American companies that import products from those countries. Those companies then pass the added costs they incur from the tariff down to consumers, inflating prices of goods. Trump's tariff plan could have sweeping negative consequences for U.S. consumers, raising the price of critical goods, such as gasoline, canola oil, and beef, Bloomberg reported. 

Donald Trump doing what he does best yet again: spit on our traditional allies, this time Canada.

[hollybrooke]

First chapter of the sociopolitical interpretation of the minecraft lore i’m writing, rest of the story will be on ao3! :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58970947/chapters/150328720

Steve goes up to the village and he’s totally a normal guy there is nothing odd about him anyways he needs to buy a bunch of illegal things.

The bell above the shop’s door chimed as he stepped, tiptoed, through the threshold of the entryway. He was assaulted by the smell of mint, lavender, and fresh air whisking its way into the store from the open window by the front counter. The interior always had a homey feel to it. Soft lights, floor rugs, burning candles, and hanging vines adorned the interior of the retailer.

Glancing around, he took in the sight of an underwhelming selection of goods. Hmm, that’s strange. It was a smaller shop, but the shelves were stocked full of books, herbs, and miscellaneous trinkets. Well…usually. Seems like they’re running out of stuff. Looks like there’s still plenty left in stock, but he’s never seen so much vacant space on the shelves before.

Alright, get the brewing ingredients to make the potiony stuff for Willamine and get out before having to talk一

“Steve!”

Oh god dammit.

Steve quickened his pace to duck in between shelves. “Oh, hey…hi, Makena, didn’t know you’d be working today,” he dismissed as he perused through the aisles. Specifically the ones out of her line of sight. No ulterior motive there. His gaze trailed along jars of herbs and bottles full of vibrant dyes that glittered from the golden rays of sunshine peeking in through the shop’s windows. Please leave me alone please leave me alone plea一

“This is my shop. I'm like the only one who works here,” Makena countered. She twisted her way through the aisles to meet the disheveled traveler halfway through her store.

The store seemed much brighter with her now in view. Her sunny yellow sweater livened up the space. A sunbeam glittered against the woven pile yarns. Interesting choice, pairing them with mauve dress pants but hey, Steve is no one to tell anyone about fashion. He got scolded regularly for his wardrobe choices.

The place was a small hole in the wall, sort of mom-and-pop joint, that carried your usual essentials like herbs, tools, textiles, nothing special really. But they also carried just enough of the other kinds of goods that the bigger more monitored retailers wouldn’t dare carry. Another reason to like this little middle-of-nowhere village. No one paid attention to the rural poor folk growing wheat and smithing a few swords maybe. Made it much easier to believe a few of them wouldn’t be smuggling treasonous ingredients.

Tariffs, embargoes, and a full-on ban on potion brewing, magic, fun, etc. made certain products harder to find than others, let alone buy. The Overworld was in a political, control-hungry chokehold hellbent on squeezing the life, power, and resources out of anything still left to their own devices. But what is Steve gonna do about that? Actually go to hell? The Nether isn’t great this time of year…or any time of year. And the End isn’t much better.

And today is not the day Steve wrestles a creeper for gunpowder. He'll buy it from the smuggling rubbernecker whose eyes follow him on his way back home a little closely. Thank you very much.

Steve continued to weave through the aisles, browsing at the items on the shelves. Gunpowder, gunpowder, gunpowder…

“Where've you been?” The girl peeked her head into view of the aisle Steve was browsing.

Steve sighed. “Oh, yanno, just around.” He picked items off the shelves and investigated them at random to make himself appear busy. He wasn't in the mood for conversation.

“Around?” she pressed with a curious smile on her face.

“Yeah, well, yanno from place to place, always places to be…hah anyways一“

“What kinds of places?” Makena interjected.

Steve deflected her question. “I’m looking for gunpowder, the uh一fine stuff for brewing yeah? Have any in stock?” Finding where she rearranged the goods for the millionth time was always pulling teeth with her.

“Always business with you.”

“I’m a busy guy.” Steve swished a glass bottle of herbs in his hand, studying the ground leaves swirling inside the container. The crushed plants became more vibrant when a brilliant ray of sunshine reached toward the bottle from the window.

“Surprising. You being familiar with brewing that is,” she elaborated. Makena placed her fingers around the neck of the bottle and plucked it from his grasp. Steve flinched when their fingers brushed each other. The bottle was placed back on the shelf with utmost care.

“It's not your business.” Steve shuffled his way down the aisle to find something else to aimlessly pretend to care about.

“Humans and witches don't necessarily get along. Makes those sorts of things very hard to come by.”

What was she getting at?

“It`d be a shame if you knew one who could actually brew potions. Even worse if they say, I don't know, shared some potions for a discount? Free stuff from here? It'd be terrible really,” Makena rambled to the other.

That wasn't happening. Willamine would totally do it if Steve wasn't there to intervene. She had no impulse control and saw strangers as an opportunity to make friends. Strangers were an opportunity to get shot. Especially if they were a naive witch with an optimism problem stuck in a cave city for their entire lives. Steve didn't entertain Makena`s proposal on account of how stupid it was.

He was the only other one in the shop with her so he had the pleasure of getting all of her undivided attention. He detested attention.

Makena twisted the knitted fabric of her yellow sweater in her hands. “We’ve been hoping you would stop by, actually.”

“Oh, is that so?” Steve replied. Whatever she was playing at, he wasn't interested.

“Yeah, you see, we need a bit of help with a bit of a situation.” She continued to fiddle with the yellow yarns at her midsection.

“Hm...shame I can’t stick around,” Steve dismissed.

“A job. A, uh...quest if you will,” she pressed further.

“No.” Steve attempted to shut down Makena’s efforts for his coerced participation in events that would cause destruction and conflict under his name. He’s had enough of that for one lifetime. And Serephine still had him ‘running errands’ for her. If they could even be called that. He had enough on his plate.

“Steve一” the village girl pleaded. Her desperate deep brown eyes bore into him. Do not let her guilt trip you.

“Absolutely,” Steve started.

“If you would just hear一“ She tried again.

“Not.” He finished. No way was he being peer pressured into something stupid again like a creeper wandering too close to their blacksmith. Or like that time their ‘golem was acting up’ and all he had to do was clean out the redstone chamber. Or like that other time that a spider made a web inside the bell tower. This village needed to learn how to solve its own stupid problems. Steve was not their gun for hire for menial projects with simple solutions.

“一us out.” She deflated before him.

Makena set the gunpowder on the counter in front of Steve rather dejectedly. At least she got the hint. Steve opened a small, worn leather pouch and reached for his money. Her eyes downcast, she opened the drawer. “Twenty,” she said with no emotion left in her voice. Her spirit dripped out of her before Steve`s eyes. He tried his damnest to not feel bad but he just couldn't keep helping them. It drew too much attention. She placed a hand out for the silver coins. He tilted his hand to let them fall into her grasp. She looked miserable. Don't you dare feel bad he reinforced to himself.

Steve grabbed the box of gunpowder and then made a beeline for the door. “Thank you.” He flicked his hand in the air towards the shopgirl on his way out.

Makena closed the drawer. “I’ll be gone by next week. Most of the town will be too. I’ll leave some gunpowder in the back closet for the next time you stop by. On the house,” she called towards the exit.

What was that supposed to mean? Steve stopped dead in his tracks, turning around to face her. “What?”

“Things have been getting worse…we're all packing up and leaving this week, coupla’ convoys towards the big city. I know it`s already under rule there but at least it's safe there. For now,” Makena explained. She leaned forward to rest her arms on the counter. Her fingers slid back and forth to twirl a spare piece of hair resting on its surface.

“I’m not following,” Steve spoke as he cocked his head to the side.

“I mean, yeah, we kinda figured. You’re not really the ‘travel in numbers’ sorta guy一didn’t really expect you to follow us to the city.” Makena gave a dry laugh at him, a sad smile taking over her features.

Steve gave the girl a puzzled look as he readjusted the crate.

“No, I mean what’s going on?” He asked more firmly.

“You’ve been traveling一said so yourself. It’s not just our village; it's everywhere.” She was studying the lock of hair in her grasp with a bored expression. She let her body melt into the flat surface to rest her cheek on her folded arms. The rest of her hair slipped down onto the shiny counter. A light breeze rustled the stray pieces as it blew in from the window above her. She looked defeated.

Steve didn’t understand. He had to be missing something. How could one of the only truly free settlements be relocating? Certainly, they wouldn’t be safer anywhere else.

Living above one of the last remaining independent mob settlements had unknowingly given them protection from the Brine family’s conquest of the overworld. Sure, they didn’t know that, but they had to have at least figured out they had some sort of immunity given they had always been left alone despite the rest of the human population centers having been absorbed into Brine territory. And now they’re leaving one of the last regions safe from the glowy-eyed mafia? Stupid. They didn’t know it was stupid, but it was. The worst part was that Steve couldn't even explain why this was a terrible play in the tedious game of chess the Overworld civilizations were competing in.

If these people left, they would be taken care of rather quickly by authorities. And not human authorities.

“What do you mean? You’re all just…jumping ship?” Steve set the gunpowder down on the hardwood and approached the despondent shopkeeper.

“Nautical pun! Hah, that’s, uh, bad timing, man.” Makena cringed at him.

“What?” he questioned the girl.

“Why was the timing for your joke bad?” She gave him a trivial expression. It was weird that for once he was the one who lacked information. Normally it was the other way around with the villagers.

“No, why the hell are you all leaving?” He clarified.

“Strength in numbers. We’d be safer, especially since our Sheriff skipped town.” She threw her hands up. That was apparently a sore spot for her. Wait wasn't Makena seeing the sheriff? Or was it the town clerk? Steve tried to avoid any sort of involvement with the village from a social standpoint. Nonetheless, pretty low class for the Sheriff to skip town if there was some sort of threat.

He still didn't have the full story. Or any of it. “Makena what the hell are you talking about一whatever you think I’ve seen一I haven’t?”

She studied him. Her gaze pierced right through him. “You seriously don’t know?” She landed on.

Steve shook his head.

“Well…the pillagers are making more frequent stops here. Few rogue enderman are really upset with us? We’ve never had issues with them, but these ones are weird: dressed differently, acting strange, causing trouble for us, is all. And it just seems the ocean is at war with everything that’s not in the ocean, so, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that would’ja?”

Oh, so this was less of a stupid problem and more of a terrorist problem. She should have started with that. He had a gut feeling the enderman and drowned were probably looking for them and not a human village.

Given the circumstances, this was likely a Steve problem because it was technically a Haggstrom problem. And any Haggstrom problem is a Serephine problem which she always handed off to him. This was a Steve problem now, wasn't it? Great. Well not the pillagers, Haggstrom had nothing to do with them. Those guys were probably just bored but it would be an easy fix. He could make quick work of idiots with bows. Historically, the pillager tribes that hung around these parts had terrible aim anyway. Maybe that one could be a Shiloh problem, Steve’s dad was great with bows.

The purple sparkly enderman, a species known for being some of the most cunning warriors who could also teleport because why not? then the warring seas taking their conflict to the surface would be a much more challenging fix. Still his responsibility though. Ugh. Dad should have kept them in the mountains. The only thing that tried to kill them there was the snow.

“The endermen and the pillagers I can fix. Probably,” Steve resolved with an apprehensive breath of slight certainty. He had no idea what he was getting into but when did he ever?

“And the ocean?” Makena sounded hopeful. Too optimistic. If she’s seen the things Steve has seen…

“Yeah, I’m not fighting the ocean.” Steve shook his head. “You guys are on your own for that one.”

One problem at a time. And the ocean was kind of more of his mom`s thing. Steve and Dad did stuff like this and Mom handled everything under the water. Steve would ask Serephine to send a wire down to his mom about her war getting a little too close to home.

“Okay, never mind. The angry water zombies then一“

“Hey, that's offensive,” Steve interjected. He liked the angry water zombies. They were on good terms.

“We are so relieved that you'll help with the endermen and the pillagers!” A sigh escaped Makena. The tension softened from her body, whisked away by the promise of salvation from a world she and her village couldn’t hope to understand in any way that meant anything in the perspective of their everyday, mundane lives.

“Look, I’ll stop home, talk to a few of my…colleagues, then I’ll be back at nightfall to see what I’m getting myself into. All I need from you is to keep everyone inside tonight.” Steve placed the box on the floor and began rifling through his bag distractedly.

“Tonight, huh?” Makena leaned in. She batted her eyelashes with interest at Steve`s plan. Oh, not her too.

“Yes, I’ll be back tonight with more supplies to get a better idea of the whole situation going on here,” Steve answered her.

She responded with a pensive look and another go at a strand of hair. “Funny. Always say you’re not from around here, always say you’re just passing through, traveling, and that home is very far for you. And yet you can stop home and come back within a few hours,” Makena stated一accused.

Shit.

Deflect, diffuse, abort, adjectives that also meant avoiding open communication, etc.

Steve sputtered to come up with some sort of explanation as a lifeline. He met her gaze with wide eyes. His hand slowly raised from his bag, “I, uh,” he cut himself off. He blinked several times and started again, “Well, you see, I一” He placed a hand on his chest to make his explanation seem more sincere.

“Lied?” Makena cut him off. She directed a devious yet curious smile in his direction. After trying to pry information out of the elusive traveler to no avail time and time again, the victory of chipping away a tiny piece of his rough exterior felt good.

He pursed his lips, fiddling with the strap of his crossbody. Steve’s gaze wandered around the store and he shifted on his feet several times.

“I don’t have any answers to the questions you have. I’m just around sometimes, and that’s all you need to know.”

“I feel like you at least owe us some answers,” Makena countered.

“You asked me for help. I’ll tell you what you need to know. I never lied about being a traveler. I’ve seen more of the world than you have, and I can tell you it’s dangerous. If I tell you any more than that you could be in danger. Trust me, it's best if you stay out of it.”

“That`s cryptic dude. Who the hell are you? No, really—” Makena stepped forward to challenge him. She allowed her arms to swing through the air in frustration at the lack of information Steve let on.

“Tell me about the enderman. That’s what I’m worried about right now and that should be our first priority. Pillagers, yeah, they’re mean, but they’re just twisted angry humans which makes them much less of a threat. Now endermen on the other hand, that’s higher on my list.”

“Well, they’re not the normal ones spotted on the miners’ trips or seen late at night lurking on the outskirts of town, these ones are different.”

“You said they were acting weird and dressed weird一how?”

“Well, they’re dressed in uniforms. All wearing the same uniform. Seems military but no military garbs I’ve ever seen. Got the hats, jackets, lapels, the whole nine yards. Normally we leave endermen alone. Sure they take our stuff, but if we turn the other cheek, they don’t take our lives. Now…they’ve started getting closer, approaching, aggression without being provoked, talking to us…that’s not normal.” Makena recounted in distress.

They weren't wearing street clothes and the only uniforms they had in the city were the police and they didn't take calls above the surface. These endermen were not Haggstrom civilians then. Another complication.

“Uniformed endermen, that’s a problem.” Steve pressed a palm into his forehead and then spoke again. “And none of you looked them in the eye?”

“No!”

Steve stopped. “Wait一you said they talked to you. What did they say?”

“Nothing we could make heads or tails of,” she dismissed.

“Maybe I could. Makena, I need to know what they said,” Steve begged of her. He hated begging people for things.

“Not like it'll mean anything to you but they kept asking for us to ‘let them in the city.’ That they ‘came for the city’, and they needed to be ‘granted safe entry.’ But Steve, we are in the middle of nowhere. If they’re looking for a city, there’s got to be some sort of mistake. They kept asking to speak with our leader, some duchess or a ‘Serephine,’ but obviously, there’s been some sort of miscommunication because the closest thing we had was our sheriff who turned tail as soon as we suggested he go make contact since our mayor is still bedridden,” Makena rambled, the cadence of her voice became ever more frantic with each syllable.

“Have they hurt any of you?” Steve asked with a serious tone.

“Not bad. Roughed a few of the tougher ones up but…I think if they really wanted to hurt us, kill us, they would. I think they’re lost?” She asked out loud as if trying the theory for herself.

“Nope, they’re definitely in the right place…They just don’t know how to get there. And if Serephine hadn’t mentioned a squad of Enderian soldiers coming to meet with us, and if they were, they certainly wouldn’t be traveling topside. We’d just open our portal for them so they’d already be in the city.” Steve paced the wooden floorboards and tapped his index finger on his chin.

Makena laughed in both fear and disbelief.

“Steve, what are you talking about? What’s going on?” Makena looked terrified. He didn't blame her. These people had nowhere to go. The safest place for them to be would have been Haggstrom but they struck out given they were human. And Steve was a…special case.

“I think it’s a trap,” he concluded.

“You think the endermen are trying to trap us? If they wanted to do that, wouldn’t they have done so already?”

“It’s not a trap for you,” Steve said with grave words and a hardened expression. He clenched his fists at his sides.

“What are you saying?” she pried.

“That you need to keep everyone inside until I give the all clear. I’m going to speak with Serephine and figure out how to handle this without anyone getting shot. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Do not make contact with the endermen. Stay inside.”

“Who’s Serephine? Ugh, never mind!” Makena let that question go in favor of sharing something else. “There’s one other thing. Our men cornered one of the endermen. It didn’t teleport away, it just…cowered. Like…like it was afraid? Then the enderman ran off into the tree line.”

“Ran. Not teleported,” Steve confirmed.

“Yup. It dropped something too,” Makena sidestepped to reach a satchel at the other end of the wooden counter to rifle inside and remove a small flat object that reflected against a ray of sunshine. “It seems like some sort of identification card? It’s written in common which surprised us all, we thought endermen spoke their own language. Maybe this will help you and Serephine, whoever she is,” Makena handed over the shiny badge to Steve.

Steve accepted the small card and studied it. He turned the card between his fingers, playing a few tricks with the tiny object before flicking it out between his pointer and middle finger to be at eye level.

“Atticus Kingsetter,” Steve read aloud. “What are you doing here? And why didn’t you teleport?” Steve murmured.

[betterbemeta]

because I love to cook the youtube algorithm pushes me a lot of food porn videos which I guess are adjacent. But over time, something about them feels cruel to me. The influencers are living in an alternate universe. 'Surf n' turf fried rice?' 40 lbs of it for a tailgate?

I live in the USA, and the absolute cheapest online price for snow crab legs I could find was $10 a lb and I have no idea if the product's any good quality. As of November 2024, the wholesale prices before markup were over $8 a lb. I haven't seen them in my grocery store for under $14 a lb. Online, 10 lb cases of crab like he's carrying there go for almost always over $100. Sometimes over $200. There was a 2018-2019 population collapse due to a marine heatwave that knocked out over 10 billion crabs.

The stated price of a beef tenderloin varies wildly depending on where I look. I can find a USDA report that states that the retail cost of beef tenderloin in my area in 2024 was around $8-$11 per lb but I have NEVER seen it for under $15 a lb on sale in the store, at least recently. Grass-fed beef costs a lot more. Maybe I am not looking hard enough, and there ARE definitely ways to get meat cheaper, like buying a cow share. But like... do you get what I am saying? That meat fried rice guy is holding is potentially over $100 by itself. and why the hell do you need tenderloin to make fried rice, anyway? It's one of the more expensive cow parts, it's filet mignon.

I kind of find it fun to watch videos where a butcher cuts up wagyu beef because it's a luxury that I can't justify spending on myself. But after a certain point this stuff stops feeling like fantasy, and begins feeling cruel. Maybe this guy has special connections where he can get that much crab for below wholesale prices, or has special deals with farmers to get a $60 whole tenderloin when he wants. But its more likely he's just rich, or is projecting the image of being rich using investor or sponsorship money.

The USA has leadership right now that dismantled any agency that can control bird flu and is blaming egg prices on its enemies. Normal people will be watching their grocery bills further skyrocket due to isolationist tariffs, rent, utilities, and medical prices take more out of their food budgets than ever before. And it would not surprise me if the plan to make up the difference after the feds round up low-wage immigrant workers is to send them right back to work but like, even more literally enslaved.

And youtube wants me to see the altreality where some random guy brings the economic collapse of largely indigenous alaskan fishing communities, and cubed filet mignon, to a tailgate??? what 'let them eat cake' bs is this???

[nocasdatsgay]

Fanfic: Barging In

Pair: Eris/Reader

Rating: T (Fluff)

Word Count: 771

Summary: Eris becomes High Lord and goes to get his mate in the middle of the night.

Notes/Warnings: Spring Court Reader. Tamlin is there but he’s not any trouble. Reader POV

Read here on ao3 or below the cut

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

You’d been sleeping peacefully. It took a while to adjust back to being in your home court of Spring with Tamlin almost back to normal. You were finally able to sleep through the night most nights now. You’d been dreaming about a forest when you stilled in your dream, the smell of bonfire coming through and you looked around for the source. 

You didn’t find it- you were jolted awake when you felt hands on your body. You screamed, thrashing about to get away from whatever grabbed you. Your feet hit something solid and you screamed again, trying to crawl up the bed. 

“Stop kicking me! Love, it’s me!” 

You stilled, panting and looking at the figure next to you. It took a moment for your eyes to adjust to the dark and your mind to catch up with what you heard and saw. It was Eris, his red hair and skin practically glowing and illuminating the room. You didn’t remember that from the last time you saw him.

“What, Eris- why- how are you here?” 

“I’m High Lord now,” he said, his voice soft and stirring that bond in your chest. “I’ve come to take you home.”

You were still stunned and confused. “In the middle of the night?” You hissed. 

He grinned at you. “I can’t wait another day. Trust me. I’ll send for your things, don’t worry.”

Then Eris scooped you up out of bed and tossed you over his shoulder, still in your nightgown. You yelled again and hit his back. “Have you lost your mind?”

He only laughed at you as he carried you out into the hall. You heard the rattle of armor and guards shouting. You flushed red with embarrassment. 

“Eris put me down!” 

“Eris, what the hell are you doing?” You wanted to die as that voice belonged to Lord Tamlin. 

“Taking my mate home,” Eris replied as if he didn’t just break several laws by barging into another High Lord’s manor. 

He stopped and Tamlin called out your name. “Do you even want to go with him?” He asked. He was more calm about this than you anticipated. “Eris put her down.” 

You lifted your body up, slightly dizzy and looked to see Tamlin shirtless, half laced trousers thrown on in a hurry. He was giving you an out. “I-“

Eris cut you off. “I’ll sign those trade agreements that had sat on my fathers desk for months and lower the import tariffs if you let us walk out of here right now, unscathed.” 

“Eris,” you glared even if he couldn’t see your face.

Tamlin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you want to go with him, yes or no?” His question was directed at you. 

You sighed. “Yes. But don’t tell anyone he hauled me out of here like a mindless brute.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Tamlin sounded beyond exasperated. “Break my wards again, Eris and I will kill you.” 

“Understood,” he said with a serious tone. “I’ll send you the documents in the morning. And I’ll request for her things- the right way.” He then patted your rear, making you jolt and flush again. “I’ll be taking my mate home now.”

You glared into the darkness as he proceeded to start walking again. Tamlin made eye contact with you as you both passed and you glared at him. He did nothing to hide his amusement. You couldn’t be too angry. Tamlin knew you were Eris’s mate. He knew the feelings were mutual and had known for decades. 

You were certain that was the only reason he let you both walk out without another word. Eris finally pulled you off his shoulder and down into his arms when you both reached the manor doors. You hit him on his shoulder while he opened the doors and carried you into the courtyard. 

“You did this on purpose,” you pouted. The sentries at the door ignored you both but you knew they were snickering to themselves. 

Eris turned and whispered as he carried you past the wards. “I will make it up to you, love. Once I sign those agreements in the morning, I have nothing planned outside of keeping you in bed for the rest of the day.”

Your scent betrayed you as you thought about being with your mate for the first time in nearly a century. He grinned at you, want in his eyes and his own scent changed ever so slightly. 

“Take me home,” you whispered back. 

“See, I told you to trust me.” You rolled your eyes as he grinned and winnowed you both to Forest House. 

[bitchy-peachy]

I don't know whether I should find Trump voters freaking out after learning that Trump doesn't care about him funny or infuriating. It's funny bc literally every reason they had voted for this man was a bold-faced lie and infuriating bc ppl on both sides has be telling them over and over that Trump would fuck America over and now that it's affecting them and their precious gas and egg price, they want to cry about being duped.

I find regretful Trump voters quite pitiful and soulless. Which is quite a lot from me cos when I despise someone to the core I go completely apathetic towards any suffering they may have.

They voted as selfishly as possible. Some didn't even care about the prices or anything, but yes for "sticking it to the libs".

But... While a lot of maga voted for Trump because he openly hates those they hate, there's unfortunately a lot of dumbass people that actually believed he would "unify" America.

(I'm not even joking. I've seen some maga online that are that effing delusional. They really thought they were the "good guys" in voting for the orange skidmark. I swear they need to get slapped for the audacity but I don't want to catch shit from them. )

These are the same people that compared wearing a freaking MASK to slavery so they've always been stupid and also racist af. They blame and project their own mediocrity on minorities and women (even if they're women themselves cos holyshit do maga women hate other women. My own maga mother... Oh she's literally hates everything with a vagina, even animals)

Those voters regretting their vote now... They won't even get the concept of pity from me. (My maga mother and her crying over her VA benefits she voted away lost me forever too.)

They didn't even know what tariffs were ffs. Or that "Obamacare" (a nickname given by republicans themselves, btw 😂) is the ACA they wanted to keep.

They just saw "Obama" in the little nickname and thought "Evil Black Democrat President is robbing us blind. We only want ACA🤬!"

Some are trying to lie to themselves thinking the tariffs will bring back American jobs (😂) and make us buy only "American products" ignoring the fact that our "American products" have imported components that will be affected by these tariffs.

So our "Made in America" shit... Yeah. That's going up.

Oh don't get me started on how more than half of our agriculture is imported and the agriculture that's actually done in our country is done mostly by immigrants that get paid shit wages. (And when Trump deports them all and farmers are forced to hire Americans that couldn't be assed to work a field, the prices will go up for our local agriculture as well)

These morons, we have to call them that, voted for the most epic downward spiral that will tank the American economy for potential decades (not just a few years of "hardship" like that Immigrant-That-Should-Get-Pimp-Smacked-Back-To-Africa Musk claimed.)

Sad thing is that we already had poverty. The middle class no longer exists. It's everyone's poor but with a handful of rich fucks.

And these moronic ass people just freaking put that shit on steroids with their dumb fucking voting.

People tell me I shouldn't insult them so much but shit. They're fucking stupid as hell.

They don't even understand why even relatives and friends don't wanna talk to them anymore 😂.

Oh its not a "difference of opinion". They voted to make us poorer, take rights away from the lgbtqia, women (yes, you miscarry and you can die from it now cos the procedure to remove rotting fetus matter is an abortion which these stupid dumbfuckers are very deaf about.), they voted against ALL POC (including the idiots that voted against themselves. DING DING DING! DENATURALIZATION! America has done it before and Trump will be bringing it back with his fake ass "invasion" emergency to activate the army), they voted against affordable healthcare and therefore fucked over people with preexisting conditions/disabilities etc., they voted against education because republicans need only stupid people to keep them in power.

Heck, they voted against gender affirming care because they think it only affects trans people when there's people with health conditions that require this kind of care (like me. A cis woman that produces too much estrogen that causes me a variety of health problems.)

Red states are behind in everything. Education, health, minimum wages but they're sure winning by being higher in crimes, sex crimes, incest and poverty.

They mooch off blue states taxes. They don't give as much as much back as they take. If it weren't for "demonrats" they'd be completely off the map.

Republican voters like living that way without realizing they could have been so much better.

They keep willingly voting for people that keep them in that life or worse... considering that these elections had very high stakes.

These elections were not like others in the past. He has too much power with the SC, senate and representatives.

Trump voters regretting their votes now should wipe words like freedom and patriot off their vocabulary because they have selfishly and quite stupidly fucked America.

Damn this shit was long, LMFAOOO.

[theliterarywolf]

This entire post election cycle as a black person has basically been me going into blogs of people I once respected (or at least thought were pretty decent) and tripping over the 800 different slurs they’ve clearly been dying to call me but couldn’t until now :(

If the 2024 Political Cycle taught me nothing else, it's that people -- no matter the political leaning, no matter the side of the poverty level, no matter the orientation -- have just been opting for a window to embrace cruelty.

Because, hell, ever since we got the results, people have just been rushing to show their assholes.

From people spamming online sex-workers with shite like 'Lol, say goodbye to your birth-control, stupid bitch', people trying to "clap-back" at merch/plushie artists worrying about how the incoming administration's severe misunderstanding of tariffs is going to affect their income, people proudly letting the slurs fly for minorities who voted for Trump.

And before anyone says anything, I'm not out here trying to say 'oh, if we just come together and Kumbaya, we can save the country'. People are scared, people have every right to be scared.

Because, really, the worst thing that's going to come out of the next few years isn't even going to be from the White House or the Supreme Court. It's going to be the everyday person taking the new administration as a window to be cruel.

Because, let's call a spade a spade, if American citizens did have more sense of community, did have something resembling mercy for their neighbors, no amount of political strongarming would matter for shit. Because a government's power is supposed to come from its citizens; not the other way around.

However, those in power have been successful at making the American populace forget about that and that's why we're in the situation we're in now.

[racefortheironthrone]

Why do economists need to shut up about mercantilism, as you alluded to in your post about Louis XIV's chief ministers?

In part due to their supposed intellectual descent from Adam Smith and the other classical economists, contemporary economists are pretty uniformly hostile to mercantilism, seeing it as a wrong-headed political economy that held back human progress until it was replaced by that best of all ideas: capitalism.

As a student of economic history and the history of political economy, I find that economists generally have a pretty poor understanding of what mercantilists actually believed and what economic policies they actually supported. In reality, a lot of the things that economists see as key advances in the creation of capitalism - the invention of the joint-stock company, the creation of financial markets, etc. - were all accomplishments of mercantiism.

Rather than the crude stereotype of mercantilists as a bunch of monetary weirdos who thought the secret to prosperity was the hoarding of precious metals, mercantilists were actually lazer-focused on economic development. The whole business about trying to achieve a positive balance of trade and financial liquidity and restraining wages was all a means to an end of economic development. Trade surpluses could be invested in manufacturing and shipping, gold reserves played an important role in deepening capital pools and thus increasing levels of investment at lower interest rates that could support larger-scale and more capital intensive enterprises, and so forth.

Indeed, the arch-sin of mercantilism in the eyes of classical and contemporary economists, their interference in free trade through tariffs, monopolies, and other interventions, was all directed at the overriding economic goal of climbing the value-added ladder.

Thus, England (and later Britain) put a tariff on foreign textiles and an export tax on raw wool and forbade the emigration of skilled workers (while supporting the immigration of skilled workers to England) and other mercantilist policies to move up from being exporters of raw wool (which meant that most of the profits from the higher value-added part of the industry went to Burgundy) to being exporters of cheap wool cloth to being exporters of more advanced textiles. Hell, even Adam Smith saw the logic of the Navigation Acts!

And this is what brings me to the most devastating critique of the standard economist narrative about mercantilism: the majority of the countries that successfully industrialized did so using mercantilist principles rather than laissez-faire principles:

When England became the first industrial economy, it did so under strict protectionist policies and only converted to free trade once it had gained enough of a technological and economic advantage over its competitors that it didn't need protectionism any more.

When the United States industrialized in the 19th century and transformed itself into the largest economy in the world, it did so from behind high tariff walls.

When Germany made itself the leading industrial power on the Continent, it did so by rejecting English free trade economics and having the state invest heavily in coal, steel, and railroads. Free trade was only for within the Zollverein, not with the outside world.

And as Dani Rodrik, Ha-Joon Chang, and others have pointed out, you see the same thing with Japan, South Korea, China...everywhere you look, you see protectionism as the means of achieving economic development, and then free trade only working for already-developed economies.

[im-afuckingunicorn]

I think the most frustrating part of trump winning is just seeing how fucking stupid trump supporters are

Genuinely half of them voted without any basic knowledge on his policies or his stances and are now bitching about the fact that he won

Tough luck bitch you voted for him

If you were one of the fuckers that voted for trump and then decided to search "What are tariffs" AFTER the election please use critical thinking skills sometime in the future, i genuinely fear for your safety.

Also idk who needs to hear this, but no matter how much you hope and pray, the REAL trump supporters will not accept you as a person of colour. You are only alienating yourself from the communities that care about you, because coloured folk who are fighting for change don't want anything to do with you and the trump supporters are going to do immeasurable harm to your family. I hope you lie awake in a cold sweat thinking about the shit you've done after your grandmas and grandpas get deported. I hope you regret it for the rest of your life. I hope you never forget the feeling of that pencil scratching that paper you sick fuck. You signed your brothers and sisters' lives away. The next 4 years are going to be hell and it's just getting started.

The leopards eating peoples' faces party will not spare you no matter how hard you try to pretend, and when they eat your face i don't want to see you play victim.

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Just had to get this off my chest, because honestly, the carrot with legs is really pissing off quite a few people around me (and me as well), so I just have to let out some steam.

So I just learned that the deformed orange is threatening my country with tariffs. Well, probably not a good idea when you see some of the top products the US imports from Denmark in a year such as 2023.

Really a good idea to put tariff on the import from the country, that provide you with pharmaceutical products and medical apparatus, in a time were people are already killing and threatening to kill health insurance CEOs, only making it even more expensive. Sure, people are going to love it, you absolute orange idiot with juice for brains.

Here's numbers from 2022, giving a more in depth picture. The first pic is Denmark's over all exports to the USA in %, the following are only medical in %.

Oh, and let's not forget Lego. With tariffs on both China and Denmark, that's going to cost hell of a lot more than it already does.

Also, Maersk (one of the leading shipping companies in the world) is Danish, with head quarters in Copenhagen and country head office in Aarhus. Interesting to see how that one will work out, when Maersk currently exports and imports for the US via sea routes.

Anyway, enough whinning from me. Back to writing, so we can forget the state of the world for a moment.

[bookishjules]

so at the debate tournament i attended recently for the girls i babysit, they won only two out of four debates when they really should have won three, but the judge for their second debate was so obviously biased that he let the private school kids who had been assigned the pro side of "tariffs do more harm than good" win despite them having broken multiple rules of debate, starting to argue for the wrong side at one point, and generally just having the weaker argument. and when he gave critiques to my girls' team, it was so clear that he hadn't actually been listening to them anyway.. it was so shitty. we all left the debate pissed as hell and it only continued through the day as my 13yo talked to her coach and the head judge and they both told her that while the situation sounded super shady, there was unfortunately nothing they could do.

anyway, my 11yo found out the judge's name at some point during the day and started placing curses upon it. or.. okay she wasn't really cursing but there were a hell of a lot of "i hate you [redacted]"s and "when i get you [redacted]"s going around, and even a week later, she's still repeating those little hateful mantras at least once a day. well today, she decided she was going to write him something like a diss track except it's a "remix" of that's so true by gracie abrams. it's a work in progess, she said, but she sent me a voice message singing her way through what she had written and when i tell you i just about lost it.. i think my favorite lyric change was kicking back on your couch 'cause you don't know i'm coming for you.

that judge has no idea the level of wrath he's incurred upon himself with a singular unjust middle school debate ruling.

[lunapwrites]

Ok one more political post and then I'm done today promise.

...or at least until the next horror occurs.

Anyway, point is, in a few hours I get to hop on a zoom call with my boss and co-workers. As recently as last week, these men were all trying to pooh-pooh the idea of more tariffs on China, saying that it was all posturing, and that tariffs on Canada would be a good thing, actually, because it would make our product more competitive domestically.

I have mentioned before that I work in international logistics, and I do. In the lumber industry. I've been telling them since before the election that if Trump got reelected, they should absolutely brace for more tariffs, because he was going to put them in place in the stupidest way possible. I even nailed the increase on China (I've been giving them +10% in addition to current.)

Now, my point in saying all of this is that you all have no idea how unstable the lumber market is right now. Demand is currently sitting somewhere in hell - no one can afford to buy material at the prices they are before the tariffs kick in. As much as His Majesty likes to claim we have all the wood we need, we don't. The bulk of our supply is imported. And that's not even taking into account that different wood is used for different purposes.

The wood that we tend to have the most of on the east coast is Southern Yellow Pine - this is what's usually used for treated lumber. We also have some hardwoods like Locust, Poplar, Maple, and Oak, but these forests are over harvested and so are in limited quantity. They are usually mixed together for building needs. Spruce, Hemlock (and the rare Cedar), likewise, are present but not to the degree we'd need to supply an entire industry - we get most of our Spruce from Canada. And again, this is all for building-grade, which allows for some defects. Furniture-grade does not.

On the west coast we have Western Red Cedar, which is the gold standard for high quality building material and largely what my company deals in. But most of the companies that we order from are based in Canada, where the bulk of the supply is. American domestic supply is almost entirely controlled by a single company. This company also owns most of the mills used to process the lumber and many of the largest wholesalers and installers. I'm also like 90% sure they've got a lock on the big box retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, etc. Point is, there's an effective monopoly on domestic Western Red, and they've been setting the market price for a few years now. When the rest of the holdouts can no longer compete by going to Canada, this effective monopoly will likely become a monopoly in full - if they aren't owned by this company, they're supplied by them.

The only other option that we really have is something that I've been hearing some murmuring about for a few months now: Redwood. It has a lot of similar properties to Western Red Cedar, and has historically only been something you'd find in California, so the forestry practices were... about as sustainable as I think you could manage. But if this becomes the defacto replacement fiber that we need to lean on... I don't think that's going to bode well for California in the long term.

And none of this is taking into account pressure on the domestic shipping industry, which was already on the verge of collapse. Prices are absolutely going to skyrocket. I can also see them getting rid of the rule where truckers can only legally drive for so many hours a day to combat this - this will be popular among the truckers, and may reduce some pricing initially, but the reason that law exists is because the truckers would just drive themselves into exhaustion for a few extra jobs, and then wind up making poor driving decisions, causing accidents, etc. The law was written in blood.

Anyway all of this to say shit's fucked worse than you know and I'm waiting to see how long my small family owned company manages to survive.

**I specifically work in the fencing/decking industry, so if you work in another building products area or if you just know a fuck ton about North American arborvitae and your experience on this differs, happy to be corrected or added to!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Steven Beschloss at America, America:

Anyone who’s spent time with an abusive narcissist understands the dilemma: If you just go along to get along, you’ll never escape their grip. And if you confront them, they will do anything they can to make your life a living hell—until you get away or they leave forever.

America is trapped right now in this ugly nexus, thanks to millions of Americans who identified with Donald Trump’s anger and hatreds or didn’t comprehend the dangerous choice they were making. But we have a chance to overcome this dark chapter with a clear, fearless opposition. That will require elected officials refusing to work with him and abandoning the idea that collaboration is the only way they can mitigate the damage he will cause or accomplish something themselves. The more they give him, the more he will take. The more they communicate that they accept his dominance and respect his power, the more he will exploit their vulnerability, particularly because he sadistically relishes harming and demeaning others. We saw that dynamic play out yesterday when the president of Colombia initially rejected two military planes carrying deported migrants, demanding that the U.S. create a protocol that treats these people with dignity before they would be repatriated. It was a moment when a significant trading partner and ally reminded all of us what we are fighting for.

“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves,” Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said. “That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants.” Petro went on to say that his country would receive these citizens only if they are transported “in civilian planes, without being treated like criminals.” The bellicose, over-the-top response from Trump? He would immediately put a 25 percent tariff on Colombia and issue a travel ban revoking the visas of Colombian government officials as well as their allies. “These measures are just the beginning,” Trump threatened in a Truth Social post.

Could Trump have picked up a telephone and had a simple conversation? Of course, he could have and should have. It’s not like there wasn’t an easy solution. Colombia received 475 flights with migrants deported from the U.S. between 2020 and 2024, according to the Associated Press, including 124 in 2024. But the abusive Trump preferred to bully this strategically important ally, which buys billions of dollars in U.S. exports, including corn which is important to U.S. farming states. Reluctant to escalate the unnecessary dispute, Petro’s government subsequently announced that the country would make available their own presidential planes to pick up the migrants and provide them “dignified conditions.” Classic Trump case: Escalate a minor dispute that could have been resolved calmly and simply. Exploit the “crisis” he created to pound his chest and pretend that it demonstrates how powerful he is. “I have directed my Administration to take…urgent and decisive retaliatory measures,” Trump posted.

This extreme reaction concerned less than 200 migrants, but late last night Petro reversed course to avoid a trade war by allowing even military aircraft. And the false Trump response, delivered by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again.” Donald Trump doesn’t care about or respect laws. He doesn’t care about or believe in American democratic values and principles like equality, diversity and justice. He rejects free speech and despises the peaceful assembly of those who disagree with him. He is bored by the details of policy and governance, belittles the value of expertise, only wants attention and spectacle, and is determined to surround himself with sycophants who will bow down to him. He doesn’t care about or comprehend the pain he causes other human beings. He is more than ready to use political violence to get what he wants.

He will never make an effort to unify the nation. He will never rely on inspiration, only stoke fear, seek to intimidate and threaten violence. He will never work to gain the trust of the majority. Is this an American president? Are we obliged—are elected Democrats obliged—to treat such a man with respect? This is the person who pardoned over 1,500 convicted felons who attacked the U.S. Capitol; just this weekend he invited the remorseless Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes—freshly released from prison and his 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy—to appear behind him in a Nevada rally.

Should Democrats find ways to work with Trump or oppose him at every turn? Is there any reason to believe he will do anything to make lives better rather than commit acts to glorify himself and enrich himself and his billionaire cronies by stealing from the wealth created by hard-working Americans? As I see it, going along with even some of Trump’s policies in order to minimize the damage represents collaborating with a man bent on the destruction of American democracy and aiding his effort. I understand the decision of 13 Senate Democrats (many from border states) to sign a letter to Majority Leader John Thune, offering to work with him “in good faith” to craft border security and immigration legislation. But do they really think Trump will ever work with them in good faith, especially as he’s focused on mass deportation, building a wall (again) and demonizing refugees and Democrats?

As the transgressions and degradations and the acts of corruption and criminality mount—and, yes, they already have been at an alarming pace meant to shock the unsuspecting—we should demand that Democratic leaders and anyone who is committed to overcoming this dark chapter in our history refuse to work with this regime. That will become even more important as he is surrounded by dangerously reckless cabinet secretaries and others in leadership positions motivated to carry out his agenda, satisfy his hunger for vengeance and dismantle the very government programs and agencies they have sworn to serve. Soon the deeply unfit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will likely be joined by the retribution-minded Kash Patel at the FBI, the Putin-supporting Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “running” Health and Human Services.

[...] We have to prove that we will not be drowned, not just to be resilient in the face of hostile forces, but capable of confronting and overcoming them.

In the first week of 47’s reign of terror, he has rapidly slid the country into the toilet.

[walnutbun]

Just want to say, @ all of you self-proclaimed "leftists" and "progressives" who refused to vote for Harris, whatever your reasoning:

FUCK YOU.

This is on YOU.

You knew what was at stake here, and you STILL did this shit to us. You decided that strategic voting was somehow above you, that your perceived moral superiority was more important than the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people, minorities, and basically everyone who isn't a cishet white Christian male.

Trump won because of you, and now he's got the Senate - and quite possibly the House, too. You know what that means? Even more far-right "justices". Say goodbye to gay marriage - it was nice while it lasted. Oh, and don't kid yourself - there's no chance in hell he's keeping his promise to veto a national abortion ban. Even if he does, though, the Supreme Court will make it law for him.

Speaking of kidding yourselves, don't even try the "it's only four years" shit. The Supreme Court already took care of that - he's got total immunity for anything he does that's related to the "core powers of the office". I'm sure that he and his buddies can think of a way to ensure that, even if he can't stay President, we never see another Democratic POTUS.

Oh, and by the way: HE'S WORSE ON ISRAEL, YOU FUCKING MORONS. With Harris there was at least a chance to talk her out of supporting the genocide - with Trump, Gaza will be lucky not to be nuked. Say goodbye to Ukraine, too, since everyone knows Trump is in bed with Putin. Hell, Putin's probably already preparing a "justification" for continuing to march the Russian army westward.

I'd say that I hope the lower grocery prices was worth it, but he won't even do that - his tariffs will drive prices of everything through the fucking roof (on top of the greedy corporations who - spoiler alert - were the ones driving the recession in the first place, trying to recoup lost profits from COVID).

All of you. You all decided it was OK to gamble with other people's lives. Even if the gamble had worked out, you'd still have been horrible people for risking it - but it didn't work out, did it?

On behalf of those of us who will suffer because of your selfish choices, fucking thanks. I hope the ability to pat yourself on the back and say "well at least I didn't vote for someone who supports Israel" was worth the death, destruction, and suffering that he'll inevitably cause.