Can you explain the fringe thing to me, too?

Or a mistake.

Yea, an “administrative error,” like what landed that one gentleman in El Salvador, right?

I’m not saying I approve of what he’s doing. Quite the contrary.

But it’s what he’s asking, and how he’s asking, not that he’s asking.

There is no legal basis for this fight. Do you pollen to start shooting tax collectors?

I have the worst lawyer.

Trying to control the way other countries are run is fucking wild, the notion of which should never even be remotely entertained.

In happier times, we call the process “diplomacy,” and mostly limit it to things that affect us, directly or indirectly.

But pressuring other countries to, for example, clean up their corruption so we can reliably do business with them is common. (Also hilariously hypocritical) Pressuring other countries to enact civil rights laws is fairly common, too.

I have to admit, seeing pressure to remove civil rights is unusual, at least from countries not named UAE.

been downgraded to pool membership.

I think a more interesting question would be “how.”

The word literally means “not from here.” In the bible, Jesus tells us to be kind to the alien among us, and he wasn’t talking about men from Mars.

This is, functionally, the concentration camps.

It was too late on November 6th.

That’s the thing that a lot of people keep misunderstanding. If the President of the US wants a person back from what I am going to describe as “A lesser country,” only for this exact moment, and not for any other case at all, he can get that person back. Send a battle group over, and ask politely.

El Salvador does not have the ability to keep him, if we want him back.

If they die messily, how long will it be before the next courageous instinct shows up?

I could do without the leather. But that sounds amazing.

Agreed. With the added bonus that we have too live in the system while we burn it down. I’m not a huge fan of the idea, but then, I’m a maintainer by nature.

I have nifty tech, yes, but I also have vaccination deniers, Nazis, and my fourth “once in a lifetime” economic crises. I’m never going to buy a house. I’m never going to retire. I’ll probably never even pay off my student loans.

I personally think that, largely speaking, if imports are cheaper than local production, that’s a good thing!

I’m hardly an economist, right? But I agree with you, broadly speaking. But first covid, and now Trump round two is showing is the weakness of global integration. As long as everything goes smoothly, it’s jam for everyone. But let something screw up the logistics, or someone duck up the balance of trade, and everything can go to shit really fast. There are lots of things we can’t make here, but we rely on them. That is less than ideal.

I don’t know that tariffs are the way to address that issue, or even if it needs to be addressed at all. O do know that the way Trump is doing it is all wrong.

I saw a smart flip phone once. Small smart screen on the outside, small smart screen on the inside, and a keypad that you could use to type with, using the forgotten skill.

I would love one of those.

I’d go with “deshittification,” myself. It’s not important how or why they are shit, just that they are, and the laws in question prevent us from fixing it.

The airport tried that shit on me today. I was able to make it print me a boarding pass, though.

I’m becoming a luddite in my middle age.

I think that’s a feature, not a bug.