lol maybe the plan is for us to buy All the Things and then say “look the economy is doing great people are buying stuff!”

My local Kroger equivalent has had Graeters but only like, chocolate chip or whatever. No fun or exciting flavors.

Steph:

Re: tariffs. My understanding is that when he imposed tariffs "on China" last time around, almost all the money gained (which actually came from U.S. importers) went to bail out farmers caught up in the resulting trade war/retaliation. Which is why I thought when the Iowa poll came out that they had wised up to his failed economics and he was actually going to lose much of the Midwest. I guess "other things" were more important.

ETA: Cash! My birthday twin! Happy to see you here and find you on Bluesky (both places I'm trying to be more often now rather than Twitter). Sorry life has been full of suckitude lately.

Also, he will turn on a dime so who the hell knows? I have no money right now so I'm not planning any major purchases, but I am making sure I have decent stores of food stuffs, toiletries (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, anything with ingredients sourced globally), and basic clothing items. Corps are already planning price increases so they'll take advantage no matter what, as they did during the height of the pandemic.

It's all about the grift. The President has the right to exempt specific items from tariffs and he already has a history of exempting based on donations to him and his party.
Link

I expect the same for deportations.

(Let's see if that works better)

Boom! You changed your life just like that.

I really did. In about one month, from remote state approval to walking Leifur on my new back porch.

Amazing, Calli! I hope it goes incredibly well for you now that you're there!

I feel so estranged from my family -- I've never gotten a Christmas or T-day invite from either of my brothers. Thanksgiving doesn't mean much to me except for an excuse to eat turkey and stuffing but the Xmas stuff does. I used to be able to celebrate with Rosemary, after all the parental-age relatives died off, but now she's gone too.

Timelies all!

This past weekend Gary and I went to New Jersey for a convention. Smallish , but relaxing.

We will end up going to two Thanksgiving meals on Thursday. The RTC Mr. S is in is having a catered luncheon for the kids and parents from 12-1. Then, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with Gary's mom.

Theo, I'm sorry, that's no fun. I'm so thankful that Kristin and I have built our own celebrations with our friends.

Theo, that's a bummer. Have you ever reached out to them about it? I ask because I don't think I've ever been "invited" for Christmas at my sister's but she then she gets annoyed/mad if I don't go (which I hear about from others not her).

Relatedly, I am also thankful that Kristin and Drew have built their own celebrations with their friends.

And now for something completely different:

Some good (YDefinitionOfGoodMV) election news!

New ballots finally dropped in CA13 and it has flipped from R to D, with the Dem now ahead by 182 votes. Still too close to call but most of the remaining ballots are from Merced and other northern counties that lean Dem so, along with CA45, this is likely to mean Dems will have more seats in the House than where they started after the 2022 election.