There are a lot of complicated reasons why high tariff are a global problem in a global economy, but simply put:

1. High tariffs raise prices
2. High prices reduce sales
3. Fewer sales reduces profit

Reduced profit for a single company or industry isn’t usually detrimental to a national or global economy. But when an entire country’s economy is hit with reduced profits across every industry, then it creates a problem.

So in summary, Americans are going to get fucked directly, “foreign countries” are going to get fucked indirectly.

Yep. Apollo shutting down is why I created an account, deleted all my content and my Reddit account once things started getting really fucky.

I mean, yeah. That was kinda the point.

I’m glad he connected the dots, but he’s incapable of having a true moment of self reflection.

No, no. You see, you have to serve one term, skip one, and then serve two.

Or, just be republican.

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice

You’d think that the absence of the word “consecutive” and the phrase “no… more than twice” would mean quite clearly that it’s two terms period, not one, plus two consecutive terms.

Unless, of course, these fuckheads are arguing that consecutive terms count as one.

Fuck.

I had an atomic purple gameboy at one point and I miss that thing dearly.

I really enjoy seeing the components of a thing and most of my mechanical keyboards have translucent or semi-translucent cases.

They’re not high-tech, but “demonstrator” editions of fountain pens also hit this vibe.

And if anyone is curious, I’m pretty sure the watch in this image is a Swatch JellyFish (or an imitation). Swatch still makes watches like this, but this style is called Clearly Gent now.

I’ll help you on your quest for downvotes because this seems fun.

I know this. You know this. The judges know this. The jury knows this.

This does damage by subjecting the teachers to suspensions, trials, legal fees, etc. to the point that they take a plea bargain or resign. It makes the schools hyper-sensitive.

If the courts don’t throw these cases out immediately, then the tactic worked.

How many people comply without being physically forced is what determines how much power he truly has.

That’s why the reduction of protections for federal employees was so important to implementing this phase. A lot of people have already been fired or reassigned which makes it really difficult for them to “do” anything.

Right on. I was just outlining how they’d probably make it personal against the teachers.

It works like this:

• Teach at a public school
• That school receives funding directly or indirectly from federal programs under the executive branch, including the Department of Education
• DEI support disqualifies institutions from receiving Federal funds
• Supporting DEI and trans rights while receiving Federal funds counts as defrauding the US government
• DOJ takes up the case

While EOs are not laws, they have the potential to do massive amounts of damage because most of the government runs on agencies under control of the Executive. And while universities and public schools are not federal, they receive shit tons of funds through grants, contracts, and subsidies from a wide array of federal agencies (see: academic panic at the NSF and NIH halting grant review and funding as a result of Trump’s recent orders).

Baudrillard’s notion of hyperreality comes to mind.

Hyperreality is the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.

However, after thinking up some doom and gloom shit about the future, I reversed course: Why speculate about future kids when most of us grew up with a manipulative media diet? Saturday morning cartoons were wildly manipulative, the emergence of social media damaged a lot of people’s expectation of reality, and the last three election cycles in the US were heavily impacted by the ability of certain populists to generate memes.

AI will speed up the content generation process and introduce some absurd elements like six-fingered watch models, but I don’t think it will be more manipulative than media already is, just weirder and faster.

My ultimately positive forecast: the kids of the future will create their own networked spaces outside of the mainstream internet and just continue on with their lives ignoring what doesn’t interest them and seeking out what does. Regardless, we’ll never understand it anyway.

Adjusted for inflation, that $0.25 is now equivalent to $68 million dollars, so…