Oh, absolutely!

My morning caffeine clearly hadn’t kicked in because I stupidly forgot to circle back round to that point. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Ultimately, my biggest worry is that Trump’s absolute piss-poor understanding and implementation of tariffs has very likely ‘poisoned the well’ to the point that they could probably never be successfully implemented in our lifetime by an actual competent Government - assuming the US ever gets another chance to elect one ever again.

An SUV outselling a sports car isn’t all that surprising, to be honest.

New cars are expensive AF nowadays, it’s a lot harder for people to justify spending that much money on an (arguably impractical, but definitely fun) 2-door coupe, versus a car capable of lugging around a bunch of people/cargo - while still being pretty quick in a straight line.

As an aside, I do hope that recently announced Slate truck takes off - and finally puts some downward pressure on the price of new vehicles.

Smart, specific targeted tariffs paired with grants/incentives to American companies to foster local production of critical goods (think CHIPS Act) can be a good thing, if they are done in such a way that it doesn’t send an entire industry/market into financial shock.

Like, if you want to onboard silicon wafer manufacturing (as a prime example); you would announce a small tariff to start off with, and a clear road-map of it increasing over time - allowing time for companies to build the necessary infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities onshore.

Once the industry has settled and matured, those tariffs could begin to be slowly pared back to ensure that free-market competition continues to keep prices in check.

But this would only work in an actual free-market economy, and not in the oligopoly-in-a-trenchcoat that currently exists in the states.

I’ve still got Twitter installed on my iPhone, despite rarely ever using it in the past and having not even launched it in well over a year.

But out of principle alone, as a form of silent protest I refuse to update it to X.

I’m an Australian, so I feel kinship with Canadians over this entire issue.

I wasn’t being serious in the argument, rather using absurdism to point out that the entire “Canada as the 52st state” is unworkable - and would gloriously blow up in Trump and the republicans face.

It’s honestly a much less stressful thought exercise than the potential balkanisation of the United States - nuclear power experiencing a civil war would not turn out well for anyone.

2 quick points;

1. I’m not American and I don’t want to see Canadians lose their sovereignty.

2. I was using argumentum ad absurdism to point out that this entire “proposal” would be self-defeating for Trump and the Republicans. It’s an absolute non-starter.

At least make the offer enticing, give Canada the option to join as 10 states (one per province); giving them an allotment of the 435 house seats and 20 senators.

I’m pretty sure that would be more than enough to swing the house, senate and presidency towards the left for the next few generations at least.

Canada could literally save the US if that were the case.

It has Metastasised.

Seeing as Murdoch was born in Australia, and Trump is a well-known rapist… this is an even more apt comparison than you may have thought!

He has also already filed to run again in 2028; https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3740578-grassley-has-already-filed-for-reelection-bid-in-2028/

Part of me thinks that Grassley might just be holding on to try and unseat Strom Thurman as the oldest ever sitting senator (Thurman made it to 100 years, 29 days).

Chuck Grassley last won his Senate election in 2022, and is not due for re-election until 2028.

The margin was 56.0% to 43.8%; so I’m pretty sure he’s expecting to weather the current storm of protest and wait for it to die down - and see what’s going to happen come the 2028 Presidential election cycle, namely if Trump is going to try and run again somehow.

If he were to go against Trump’s policies now, it just puts him in the crosshairs of the MAGA crowd and Elon’s dark-money.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

As much as I despise this clown, I am willing to agree with the point that he’s making here.

As an aside, you need to hear what your opposition is saying, even when you know it’s false, in order to be able to counter them.

I’m hoping (praying) that since this is a shitposting sub, you and I both are just particularly gullible and this is not an actual thing.

If you ever want to retry Parks and Rec, I highly suggest starting at second last episode of the second season (S02E23) - which is the episode where Rob Lowe and Adam Scott join and round out the cast.

If the show still doesn’t click for you then, then it’s definitely not going to - and you can ignore it forever more without any niggling doubts!

If you just want something that’s more privacy-minded out of the box without messing about with custom ROMs etc, maybe consider an iPhone?