It'd be absolutely grand if it weren't for the collapse of democracy. There really are a lot of things coming together for me right now and I'd be so happy if I weren't worrying about having to flee the country.
That'll get me a new Prusa with some to spare for filament. Unless there's a clear and specific use-case on my plate that a Core One or mk4 can't do, I'd get a new printer.
The peaceful protests are more of a gathering point than the whole solution. You gotta show up to the convention first if you want to be invited to a cosplay orgy or find that guy with the good LSD again, so to speak.
I've got two trans friends who are a lot younger than me and they've both called me dad at this point, which I've been thriving on. I'm teaching one to drive, and I'm helping the other fix her house up. Feels good man.
This has given me the somewhat unique experience of knowing how it feels when your kids are in danger without technically having any kids. I do NOT like this. I've cried, screamed, panicked, and lost sleep. I'm getting a lot of relief from protesting and fighting back, but it hurts a lot.
Getting out to protests helps a LOT with the doom. And if you print out some flyers for the General Strike to hand out, you can help halt this shit in a clear and tangible way. Keep your internal narrative about your next move, not theirs.
There are ways that tariffs can be used to protect domestic industries. But when they're done that way, it's normally specific products, implemented carefully and with some warning. I'm pretty sure there are some tariffs to protect American automakers, off the top of my head.
What the president did is just economic suicide. Sudden, huge, fairly indiscriminate, and fluctuating. I think his goal, in his mind, may have been to replace the income tax, but he really fumbled. And that's a bad idea anyway, because tariffs and sales taxes hit the middle class hardest, which slows down the economy.
There may also be an explanation that he really doesn't understand cooperation and believes every deal has a winner and a loser. And then very mistakenly concluded that we were the losers in international trade because of our trade deficit. That's incorrect. We get large amounts of goods and resources for small amounts of fiat currency, which we always seem to have more of. Our trade deficit considerably improves our quality of life in ways that cannot be replicated by an insular economy.
Well, the assholes in charge over here dismantled FEMA, a national disaster relief organization. And there are some pretty Republican regions that regularly need its assistance from hurricanes and other weather disasters.
I got a hefty stockpile of food. Probably gonna grab some extras of random consumables in the next couple days. Maybe an extra kilo of 3D printer filament mostly just for fun but also in case I need some random plastic whosywhatsit that can't be found any more.
Then whyyyyy did he work so damn hard to sink us? Fucking idiot.
No matter what happens, even if I hear about it in a Salvadoran labor prison, if he kills himself, it'll be a good day.
Yes, there are enough people walking on it to just kill the grass. No further effort is needed to form the pathway. Many wild animals make paths by walking on them a lot too.
'09 was the year the right-wing postbots took over. It was a good time to leave. It's also the year after Paul Manafort received millions of dollars from a Russian oligarch to promote Russian interests in the West, and the same year the Tea Party was formed.
Paul Manafort was also on Trump's top campaign staff in 2016.
I will never, ever respect someone who looks at the creativity and altruism of modding communities and says "That is irrational". Absolutely soulless talk. No value in the world that isn't monetary to those assholes.
It'd be absolutely grand if it weren't for the collapse of democracy. There really are a lot of things coming together for me right now and I'd be so happy if I weren't worrying about having to flee the country.