Your degree of credulity should be criminal.

You seem to be operating under the misplaced assumption that Trump’s goal with the tariffs was to actually bring manufacturing back to the US or improve the US economy in any way. It’s understandable if you haven’t paid very close attention to Trump over the past 9 years. But whenever thinking about him or his policies, you have to keep one thing top of mind: Trump is a habitual liar who only cares about his own personal wealth and power.

He’s not trying to bring manufacturing back to the US or improve the US economy. He’s doing market manipulation to increase his wealth and that of those who helped get him into power. He doesn’t give a shit about you or me or any of the rest of us. He couldn’t care less if the US crumbled into dust tomorrow, so long as he’s still on top.

Trump has stated many times he’ll serve a third term. Told people they’d “never need to vote again.” He fully plans on being President untill he dies.

Hell, his official website is selling Trump 2028 merch.

You’re right, but in the way Republicans/the right uses them, they are identical.

Every few years they change up the terminology. After PC it became SJW. Then it became CRT. Then woke. Now it’s transitioning to DEI. In a few years they’ll change to a new term.

But, to them it all means the same thing “anything supporting non-white people, lgbtq people, and/or women.”

Yes, they’re the same thing.

As others have noted, the original definitions and origins were different. However, both terms came to be appropriated by right wing politics to mean (generously) “too liberal” or (more realistically) “associated with non-white people and/or women”.

This has ALWAYS been a key feature of fascist regimes throughout history: operating as if you’re always running for election. Mussolini and Hitler both continued to hold big rallies even after they’d officially suspended voting. It’s a big part of how they keep their base engaged.

More like Prime Day or Black Friday.

While Valentine’s Day is heavily marketed and focused on consumer materialism now, it was actually celebrated as a religious holiday for well over a thousand years. It’s more an example of an existing celebration that got turned into something commercialized by capitalism.

Where as the NFL Draft, Prime Day, and Black Friday are “celebrations” wholly invented for the purpose of commercialized consumerism.

The NFL preseason to Super Bowl lasts about 6 months. That means they were going about 6 months after the Super Bowl with no significant events or anything else to draw revenue. So the people who run the NFL wanted to do something that could drive revenue during that half-year when they aren’t playing games.

So they marketed the hell out of the draft. They turned it into a big media event so they could sell sponsorships and put it on TV so they can sell ads.

It’s entirely a manufactured event to drive revenue.

I think you have a much higher opinion of French political culture than is warranted.

I’m generally curious why people get married beyond the “because I love them” when it costs so much money.

Getting married doesn’t have to cost virtually anything. Really just the application fee to get a marriage license. The specific price will vary by state, and even by county (within the US, not sure how it works outside). Where I live, you can go to a courthouse and get married for $35.

If you plan to have kids, there are a lot of legal reasons why it’s just a lot simpler to be married. The same applies without them, to a lesser degree, but with kids it’s just so much more of a hassle to not be married.

You’re right that you can achieve most (maybe even all?) legal benefits of marriage through trusts, wills, etc. But that’s a hell of a lot more work, and the lawyer fees, filing fees, and application fees are almost certainly going to cost you more than a cheap courthouse marriage. Not to mention the added work for yourself.

Beyond all that, though, the single biggest reason I wanted to get married and have a wedding with lots of friends and family was to stand up in front of everyone and profess my love for my (now) wife, let her do the same for me, then have big party with all our friends and family to celebrate it. There’s nothing wrong with spending money to throw a party for something you want to celebrate.

I mean, you see the same kind of thing with scripted television where there’s no kayfabe at all. We recently got the season finale of Daredevil Born Again, and there were all kinds of posts/comments/etc talking about how satisfying/bad ass it was to see Daredevil and Punisher beat down a bunch of cops. We all know it’s scripted fiction, but it’s still fun to watch.

Because both Houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans who are 100% in support of everything the regime is doing.

Why do polticalitcians cling to the idea that these voters can’t be reached?

They don’t. At least not the politicians who tend to do well. Reaching people who had never voted in any previous election was the central strategy to both Obama’s and Trump’s campaigns, and those were the two most successful electoral politicians in national American politics of the past 2 decades.

Could you imagine what language would look like 10-15 years from now if this actually took off.

Like, think of how ubiquitous stuff like ‘unalive’ or ‘seggs’ has become after just a few years trying to avoid algorithmic censors. Now imagine that for 5 years most people all over the internet were just inserting random phrases into their sentences. I have no idea where that would go, but it would make our colloquial language absolutely wild.

No

“Calculated Mediocrity” perfectly describes my career ambitions.

I trust, then, that you got out there to add yourself to the numbers? The next big day is May 3. What are you doing to increase these numbers so we can surpass the 5% mark?

Well, we now know for a fact that Abrego Garcia is still alive.

And it’s not about him lying. Of course a piece of shit like Bukele is more than willing to lie to anyone. The point is that he is benefitting politically from this arrangement and if he doesn’t uphold his end he can suffer political harm. It’s not just a promise, it’s a two-way deal.

Bretton Woods wasn’t about military protection. It was about stabilizing the global economy and monetary system. It absolutely gave the US a ton of economic influence, but it didn’t have anything to do with military protection. The Soviet Union even took part in the negotiations that turned into the Bretton Woods Agreement, although they chose not to sign the treaty.

The US’ military hegemony came out of NATO, the Cold War, and the Marshall Plan.

Looks like I was right. He’s still alive.