I just wish her views on the Israel/Palestine situation were better.

They’re up there with some of the other nonsensical memes I see here and there.

When I was younger, you got $20 from a friend if you were lucky, and that was fine by us because no one wants friendship to feel like an obligation. Today with inflation that might be more like $50, but still not a big thing.

$100 is typically what family would give, I wouldn’t go that high because it honestly may be seen as stepping on the toes of family members if they don’t give that much.

Honestly just a card is fine.

I guess Microsoft really changed the world.

American sports fans literally don’t know any other chants besides “Let’s go (Team Name)! clap clap clapclapclap” for domestic games, or “U-S-A! U-S-A!” for international ones.

The only thing I did recently was buy a replacement device for one I had that was crapping the bed and would need to be purchased soon anyways, but decided to buy something now before it completely died just in case prices sharply rose in the next few months.

Other than that, nothing really. I am putting away as much money as I can in savings, avoiding large purchases/being generally frugal, and taking good care of my things so they last as long as possible. Life’s not perfect, but I’m making as soft a cushion as possible in case things do get worse.

Not to say the future is set in stone or that we shouldn’t be worried, but even the Great Depression only lasted about a decade, and it’s still crazy to me just how quickly the last one went by. I have a place to live, enough money put away that I could probably last it out that long one way or another if I was laid off tomorrow, and a generally supportive community around me where people look out for one another.

But I’m lucky, I know not everyone else can say the same, so I hope you’re all doing alright out there.

I don’t think it’s building materials that is the question, but rather the multi-million dollar machines that are often designed and imported from elsewhere.

Those fancy Bosch assembly lines your widget factory needs will be hit by that 20% tariff coming from the EU, even if the building they sit in is made of American brick and lumber.

Yep. Even if you’re buying a product which is by meaningful standards “100% American made,” consider the invisible costs. The cost of the packaging that they use, the cost of the supplies/equipment they use in production and the upkeep required to maintain them, the cost of the infrastructure they use for logistics and operations, etc.

All these less visible dependencies affect the cost of doing business and can still be impacted by tariffs if anything comes from overseas, even if the product itself is just a bottle of maple syrup made in Vermont.

It doesn’t matter who the hell wants to buy TikTok if ByteDance still doesn’t want to sell.

I don’t know why we keep having these sorts of conversations when they’ve signalled they have no intent to give in to the demands of the US.

I mean, we’re here talking about it, aren’t we?

2 is a maverick.

…What?

Even numbers are the purest numbers. Perfectly balanced. Most odd numbers are flawed but can be made perfect together.

Primes, though. Primes can fuck right off no matter what.

I’d like to stay optimistic and hope they did as well, though if my own experience is any indicator, there’s equal chance they fell into the pit of “Maybe climate change is real, but it’s not that bad/it’s better for me.”

Fuck Oracle.

Definitely not a good thing. I use Proton VPN, but only because I paid for a license before I realized the CEO is a scumbag. A lot of people are moving away from Proton’s platform, so a browser choosing to bundle it in is just privacy-violating bloatware for everyone except for a subset of users who are also still using Proton, and also for some reason don’t just have the standalone app installed.

Weird that it would be coming from Americans given how often US media has depicted the importance of the homefront during the various wars that America has participated in.

Militaries still need food and supplies to operate, so someone has to be making/raising/growing all of that stuff. And those workers need to be paid, accommodated, and kept happy, so every other industry like banking, education, healthcare, entertainment, etc. needs to keep running at full steam to prop up all aspects of the supply chain.

More than just the ones in America, I’d reckon.

Agreed, it’s an interesting thing to think about at least. The nature vs nurture debate is practically as old as time itself but it feels like we’re no closer to an answer outside of “it’s a bit of both.” But how much?

It’s just that we have to make space for our 5,358 partners and the telemetry data they need.