That last part for sure resonates. I can't remember if I said it here or elsewhere, but our prices have been subsidized by substandard working conditions in China, there is no way around it. And all because large corporations wanted to make more money. And we, as consumers, shouted a resounded "hell yeah" to those Chinese suicides at Foxcon, because we wanted cheaper components and cheaper phones.
And so I basically don't know how I feel about anything. I try to be more cognizant about what I buy, where it's from, how it's made, but the speed and ease, and basically not having to think, sometimes trumps those thoughts.
The only silver lining I see to the tariffs is that it could end up sticking it to all these large corporations who fought hard to move operations out of the US, to places they knew couldn't meet US worker standards, in order to save money. Obviously, US consumers will feel the pain, but we've been buying products subsidized by Chinese suicides in Foxcon factories, and so perhaps it's a comeuppance.
I have not looked beyond the front page of the link you shared here, and I don't mean my criticism to be more than tongue in cheek, but oh boy, $2k for that is.... Something.
Those center lefts maintained a status quo that did not serve it's constituents, plain and simple. Say what you will about Trump, hate the dude and his policies, but he has a base who has some very regressive desires, and he's hitting them. Democrats have a pretty large progressive base, and they have essentially failed to meet those desires for as long as I've been alive. But maybe they needed a dog in the white house to bite them in the ass. We will see. Or we won't and the world ends, whatever!
Yes, I remind myself that each gray is at least there. I have a wonderful, full head of hair, and I never take it for granted by shaving it off. It's an insult to all of my bald and balding friends.
Early 2000s internet was so good. I don't know that it's possible to go back there. You needed it to be a little bit wild west, you needed to say "Hey, if I click this website, am I going to regret it?" But folks were generally real (except apparently the girls I talked to in AIM chat rooms, but hey, I survived).
Yeah, I remember pretty much 1992 on really well, and they were prosperous, carefree years. Everything was good (save some snags, nothing is 100%). We even turned the corner into the millennium and things were just great. I go into high school and we're just chugging along, the biggest problems we have are which cable internet provider to choose to download viruses on limewire.
Then, boom, 9/11. And the world just hasn't seemed to have gotten its footing since then. And perhaps that was naivety and my 14-year-old perspective, but that seemed to be the turning point for me, where the unprecedented became precedented.
I think the tariffs are going to make amazon's business model suffer. Can't say I like them, but when 90% of my search results are items with random all-caps names, I don't think I'd buy them if they were 34% more expensive.
House of Leaves drags at times. At times it's gripping, and at times I was bored stiff. It's interesting, I think it's nutty, I think it's a real reach and ought to be lauded, but I just never thought it was that good. I've discovered I'm just a sucker for classic epic fantasy though, so perhaps it just weren't for me. I also read it 20 years ago at this point, and so perhaps with my maturity I might enjoy another read. My brother in law just got me a copy actually, which is good because my original copy disappeared.
I never read Twilight so I have nothing to add there.
I have a three year loan at 1.9%. Why would I cough up an additional $20k now, when I could hang on to my cash and, at the very least, leave it in an account that earns twice that (and then some) in interest?
Yeah, I joined the Marines in 2009 and we were the first class at PI to do the Combat Fitness Test. But there's that word again, and it ends up being another PFT. Even I could 300 the CFT and I was never a PFT stud, just pretty good. But neither tested my mettle like walking really far with a bunch of shit on my back or not sleeping.
Personally, fitness tests is a fitness test and has nothing to do with combat. I'll always remember our company high PFT in SOI dropping out of the 25k hump. The guy who literally "set the standard" by being the fastest and doing the most pullups was on the ground saying he couldn't walk. Nice kid, but toughness doesn't necessarily equate with fitness.
And once I got to my unit I decided there were plenty of Marines who didn't belong there, and that there were women who could probably outdo them. Of course, this warred with my desire to walk around in my silkies and make homoerotic jokes with my buddies, but perhaps that's not the whole point.
Say what you will about RFK, but he's broken clock right on a couple of issues, pesticides being one of them. Sure, maybe his rationale isn't right, but his end game may be a benefit. Unfortunately it's at odds with Trump's complete destruction of regulation, but he (RFK) seems to be chugging along. I think making America healthy is good; I don't think pesticides or ultra processed foods make kids transgender.
Nah, must be something else, can't be my own poor decisions.