#Josh average projects

[implausiblyjosh]

One of our forum members is wondering how long it’ll take Tumblr to suggest some rules for the forum. I wonder the same thing myself!

[xxfandom-writesxx]

JERRY X READER headcannon..hit me with them, Fan

Oh hello person I actually know and live with!! I might eat you for this! But because you're Jerry's number one defender and fan I GUESS I will give you headcannons...your greed sickens me / j.

General and Relationship headcannons for Jerome T. Stokes >:3

General Headcannons:

Jerry has mad dandruff. Genuine problem, and he only manages to get rid of it near the epilogue because he locks in and stops using 3 in 1.

OK SO CLEARLY JERRY LIKES MAGIC BUT…what deck type does he play? I will explain in my essay! He likes playing white decks the most, both mono white and green/blue/white mix, because I project. White decks usually rely on politics/”be my friend, I help you, you help me”. Jerry tries to dial up his niceties when he plays magic so his deck can work the way its intended, he is not above it for the win. Especially near the epilogue, when he stops being gross, he actually works really well with this type of deck because he plays up the chill guy aesthetic. Proceeds to whoop ass with his deck and it feels brutal. You got to draw one card, yay, and now his foot is halfway up your ass. 

Needs glasses, but his eyesight isn’t that bad, like Josh or Bill so he never got them as a teen. Later in life he settles for reading glasses because he literally can’t read the MGT cards because of the tiny ass text, but doesn’t wear them anywhere else.

During highschool he was an average student. He wasn’t overly smart, but he wasn’t failing, either. He got B’s, sometimes an A if he actually tried, but he rarely did. 

Jerry canonically likes Studio Ghibli but I feel like he did NOT talk abt it with the club because they called it stupid. He fucks crazy with Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and he brought it up once and Bill proceeded to call him a pussy so he never talked abt it again.

The only one of the club who could likely hold a normal conversation during their teen years. As soon as he got comfortable, though, it was over. He isn’t as bad as the rest, but he will let out an insane take that will make a group of people who thought he was just some regular nerdy guy immediately switch up and go WOAAAH. 

Relationship Headcannons: 

He has insanely sweaty hands. Normally he is a little clammy, but as soon as he gets around you he is literally a wet napkin. Like he has to wipe his hands off on his pants sweaty, and it leaves wet spots. If you hold his hand it feels uncomfortable, but if you say anything he will literally never try again. This is especially true before the epilogue, and even during the epilogue he is still clammy. He just calms down a little, especially if you have been with him since highschool, or have known him since then, as he is much more comfortable with you.

Makes you learn magic, and he definitely doesn’t go easy. It feels nearly like bullying, because you are not winning those matches. He is a decent teacher, though, even if he is beating your ass. After each round he will tell you what you did wrong, and it might come across as rude, but he actually wants you to get better so you can have more fun. 

Speaking of Magic, he will build you a deck. He will give you a deck made from all of his extra cards that is tailored towards you, especially if he likes you. Cards that are good that don’t fit into his deck type that he had collected overtime immediately go into yours. He makes you sleeve and take care of them, though, because if you bend them or get them gross his soul leaves his body. This does not change from highschool to the epilogue. Grown or not, those cards are EXPENSIVE.

When he was still in the club, he kept you at a twelve foot distance away from them. It wasn’t jealousy, because, despite being more than anxious at that age, considering you would definitely be his first relationship, it was practically about safety. None of the club would be normal, and he wasn’t as proud of a man as the others would think of themselves to be. He had no reason to show you off and have you be harassed and bullied out of the group or his life. Jerry knows better.

He doesn’t ever get a chance to play DND with you because he already has a group (the club) but he does run his plans by you. Jerry will show you his notes, his sketches of villains or NPCs, and plot lines he wants to implement. On occasion, he will ask for input. If he really likes you, he may or may not make you a character that is way too overpowered so the club can’t kill you or do anything insane with their first interaction (they are all murder hobos in game ik they are). Later in the epilogue he definitely forms a group with you and he plays just a little bit of favorites. Just a little.

When you eventually have your first kiss he gets so scared. Literally horrified. He knows its about to happen because he can see you lean in and he literally freezes. Just sits there. You think he might be a brick wall, but he is happy. Jerry is just horrified because somebody is kissing HIM and he doesn’t know what to do. Eventually he gets more comfortable, but you can always feel him stiffen up a little initially each time before he relaxes, because he literally can’t believe it keeps happening every time it happens.

Dates depend on the time. Before the epilogue he likes to play magic with you, or go movie hopping. He will convince you to sneak into different trashy movies, and eventually get kicked out because you get caught. Sometimes, if you’re really lucky, he invites you back to his house to watch something. He really values quality time, so he doesn’t care if he is just sat in a room with you doing nothing. Epilogue he likes going out to lowkey places, nothing fancy but something a little quiet and nice for dinner on special occasions because he actually has money to take you out. He still values quality time, and he will invite you over to just watch a movie, or play a new game he got (he still likes table top and he finds ones that can have 2 players only). Other than that, he likes going for a walk, or a drive to talk about anything. 

[hyperfixationcenter]

Guys here's my headcannons on how the eltingville guys would do thier project because I finished my model of a battery

IM FREEEE

Enjoy sigmas ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Bill

☆ Bro is ABSOLUTELY COOKED

☆ Glue is hanging everywhere, paint is chipped, not even the labels are written nicely 😭

☆ All he did all night was read comics and now he's rushing to desperately follow the lengthy rubric and steps to complete it that takes DAYS 😭

Overall grade: D, he still labled everything right and got the math part correct, just not so much the arts and crafts part 😔

Josh

☆ He did it early, he's just really bad at doing arts and crafts

☆ He works on it little by little until it's a pretty average grade build, I would say he messes up he switches up one of the labels but it's pretty average

☆ I have a feeling he would be going to school only to break it, run home and fix it (me too Josh, me too 😭)

Overall grade: C, he messed up a label but he did pretty alright for what he could do for arta and crafts

Jerry

☆ He's actually did pretty good, he did it early and worked pretty hard on it

☆ there was a few stray gule strings and chipped paint that got him docked but other than that he did alright

☆ He turns it in the minute he gets to school, he's so proud and nervous he's gonna break his project

Overall grade: B, he did pretty good but he wasn't the cleaniest in his work, other than the messiness he worked hard and got a good grade

Pete

☆ we all know this guy is an arts and crafts, literally he's introduced by saying he was working on a build, so I think he would do pretty good

☆ he would wait until the last minute to work on it the whole night and come out with an amazing build

☆ Everything is clean and smooth, sanded and painted down, it looks amazing, for the labels and math he had to get help from Bill though

☆ He definitely used his dad's tools to help him and it worked

☆ He turns it last minute because he forgot until the last second, he was so close to being late but he did it.

Overall grade: A, he did some really clean work and the teacher even put it up on the shelf for future grades to look at it as a model for future projects

And if you were wondering what my project looks like here it is!!

Hopefully I get an A!! Wish me luck!!

[mostbelovedaewwrestlertournament]

Most Beloved AEW Wrestler Tournament 2: Week 16/Month 4 Statistics Dump

Well fellas here it is, the final statistics dump of the tournament (cause I couldn't figure out how to make sure everyone only had 1 round a day beyond 117 days so any stats I present from this point forward would be unfair and therefore pointless)

Total votes thus far: 612,393 (average of 47.85 votes per bracket, up from 45.37 last week!)

The Ties

Yes, I had to update my laptop's operating software so the hands are now different. It couldn't be helped

80 wrestlers have now been part of a tie, making up 51.28%

The Crushing Defeats

To celebrate Pride Month, I turned the crushing defeats into a new flag. This marks Willow's 7th unanimous win and Kamille's 7th unanimous loss (or 6.25% of their total brackets thus far)

25 wrestlers (16.03%) have had a unanimous win and 27 (17.31%) have had a unanimous loss. No one has had both.

The Top 20

Below are the results for Day 106-112 of the top 20

Top Teams

Hurt Syndicate's new ringer did them wonders this week

death riders - 6208.4 (Wheeler Yuta - 8223)

the opps - 5867.75 (Samoa Joe - 7111)

hounds of hell - 5683.666667 (Julia Hart - 6864)

the elite - 5471 (Matthew Jackson - 6057)

the paragon - 4883 (Kyle O'Reilly - 5754) +1

bbg - 4881 (Jay White - 7363) -1

the patriarchy - 4832 (Christian Cage - 5987)

the hurt syndicate - 4631.666667 (MJF - 7603) +5

don callis family - 4615.166667 (Konosuke Takeshita - 7159) -1

dark order - 3877.75 (Evil Uno - 5405) -1

private party - 3532 (Isiah Kassidy - 3978) -1

the vendetta - 3468 (Deonna Purrazzo - 3511) -1

spanish announce project - 3194 (Serpentico - 3503) -1

top flight - 3064.5 (Dante Martin - 3271)

ftr - 2825.5 (Cash Wheeler - 3181)

the kingdom - 2623 (Matt Taven - 3096)

la faccion ingobernable - 2548 (The Beast Mortos - 4552)

cru - 2384 (Lio Rush - 2634)

butcher & blade - 2332.5 (The Butcher - 2771)

shane taylor promotions - 2132.333333 (Lee Moriarty - 3787)

gates of agony - 1790.5 (Bishop Kaun - 1861)

premier athletes - 1260.333333 (Josh Woods - 1345)

the outcasts - 1014 (Saraya - 1014)

Stock Market

Kenny Omega - 1 - 1 ( = )

Orange Cassidy - 2 - 2 ( = )

Adam Page - 3 - 3 ( = )

Toni Storm - 4 - 4 ( = )

Swerve Strickland - 5 - 5 ( = )

Willow Nightingale - 6 - 6 ( = )

Wheeler Yuta - 7 - 7 ( = )

Kris Statlander - 8 - 8 ( = )

Eddie Kingston - 9 - 9 ( = )

MJF - 10 - 10 ( = )

Chuck Taylor - 11 - 11 ( = )

Jon Moxley - 12 - 12 ( = )

Jay White - 13 - 13 ( = )

Will Ospreay - 14 - 14 ( = )

Konosuke Takeshita - 15 - 15 ( = )

Samoa Joe - 16 - 16 ( = )

Julia Hart - 17 - 17 ( = )

Mariah May - 18 - 18 ( = )

Nyla Rose - 19 - 19 ( = )

Harley Cameron - 20 - 21 ( +1)

Matthew Jackson - 21 - 20 (-1)

Christian Cage - 22 - 22 ( = )

Kyle Fletcher - 23 - 23 ( = )

Kip Sabian - 24 - 25 ( +1)

Hook - 25 - 28 ( +3)

Athena - 26 - 27 ( +1)

Kyle O'Reilly - 27 - 24 (-3)

Queen Aminata - 28 - 26 (-2)

Claudio Castagnoli - 29 - 29 ( = )

Kazuchika Okada - 30 - 30 ( = )

Katsuyori Shibata - 31 - 35 ( +4) MOST SPOTS UP

Daniel Garcia - 32 - 32 ( = )

Jamie Hayter - 33 - 31 (-2)

Kota Ibushi - 34 - 34 ( = )

Brody King - 35 - 33 (-2)

Nicholas Jackson - 36 - 36 ( = )

Evil Uno - 37 - 38 ( +1)

PAC - 38 - 37 (-1)

Bryan Danielson - 39 - 39 ( = )

Hikaru Shida - 40 - 41 ( +1)

Anthony Bowens - 41 - 40 (-1)

Danhausen - 42 - 44 ( +2)

Powerhouse Hobbs - 43 - 42 (-1)

Mark Briscoe - 44 - 43 (-1)

Adam Cole - 45 - 45 ( = )

Mercedes Mone - 46 - 46 ( = )

Jack Perry - 47 - 48 ( +1)

Riho - 48 - 47 (-1)

Buddy Matthews - 49 - 49 ( = )

Abadon - 50 - 50 ( = )

Mark Davis - 50 - 51 ( +1)

Skye Blue - 52 - 53 ( +1)

Thunder Rosa - 53 - 54 ( +1)

Darby Allin - 54 - 56 ( +2)

The Beast Mortos - 55 - 52 (-3)

Penelope Ford - 56 - 55 (-1)

Emi Sakura - 57 - 60 ( +3)

Killswitch - 58 - 57 (-1)

Anna Jay - 59 - 62 ( +3)

Marina Shafir - 60 - 61 ( +1)

Ruby Soho - 61 - 58 (-3)

Komander - 61 - 63 ( +2)

Juice Robinson - 63 - 59 (-4) MOST SPOTS DOWN

Trent Beretta - 64 - 64 ( = )

Sting - 65 - 65 ( = )

Matt Menard - 66 - 66 ( = )

Bandido - 67 - 67 ( = )

Hologram - 68 - 68 ( = )

Nick Wayne - 69 - 69 ( = )

Austin Gunn - 70 - 70 ( = )

Isiah Kassidy - 71 - 71 ( = )

Roderick Strong - 72 - 73 ( +1)

Yuka Sakazaki - 73 - 72 (-1)

Malakai Black - 74 - 74 ( = )

John Silver - 75 - 75 ( = )

Lee Moriarty - 76 - 76 ( = )

Colten Gunn - 77 - 77 ( = )

Red Velvet - 78 - 78 ( = )

Cope - 79 - 79 ( = )

Mr Brodie Lee - 80 - 80 ( = )

Dustin Rhodes - 81 - 81 ( = )

Keith Lee - 82 - 82 ( = )

Ricochet - 83 - 86 ( +3)

Deonna Purrazzo - 84 - 85 ( +1)

Serpentico - 85 - 83 (-2)

Bryan Keith - 86 - 84 (-2)

Shelton Benjamin - 87 - 87 ( = )

Billy Gunn - 88 - 88 ( = )

Taya Valkyrie - 89 - 89 ( = )

Angelo Parker - 90 - 90 ( = )

Big Bill - 91 - 91 ( = )

Dante Martin - 92 - 92 ( = )

Lance Archer - 93 - 93 ( = )

Cash Wheeler - 94 - 94 ( = )

Max Caster - 95 - 97 ( +2)

Matt Taven - 96 - 95 (-1)

Marq Quen - 97 - 96 (-1)

Ricky Starks - 98 - 98 ( = )

AR Fox - 99 - 100 ( +1)

Angelico - 100 - 101 ( +1)

Leyla Hirsch - 101 - 99 (-2)

Darius Martin - 102 - 105 ( +3)

Bobby Lashley - 103 - 103 ( = )

Kiera Hogan - 104 - 106 ( +2)

Leila Grey - 105 - 102 (-3)

The Butcher - 106 - 104 (-2)

Alex Reynolds - 107 - 107 ( = )

Johnny TV - 108 - 109 ( +1)

Lio Rush - 109 - 108 (-1)

Rey Fenix - 110 - 110 ( = )

Wardlow - 111 - 111 ( = )

Brandon Cutler - 112 - 112 ( = )

Diamante - 113 - 114 ( +1)

Luther - 114 - 113 (-1)

Brian Cage - 115 - 115 ( = )

Dax Harwood - 116 - 117 ( +1)

Mercedes Martinez - 117 - 116 (-1)

Matt Sydal - 118 - 118 ( = )

Tay Melo - 119 - 119 ( = )

Mike Bennett - 120 - 120 ( = )

Action Andretti - 121 - 121 ( = )

Scorpio Sky - 122 - 122 ( = )

Dr Britt Baker DMD - 123 - 124 ( +1)

Lee Johnson - 124 - 123 (-1)

Colt Cabana - 125 - 125 ( = )

The Blade - 126 - 126 ( = )

Bishop Kaun - 127 - 127 ( = )

Jeff Jarrett - 128 - 130 ( +2)

Ortiz - 129 - 129 ( = )

Toa Liona - 130 - 128 (-2)

Peter Avalon - 130 - 131 ( +1)

Rush - 132 - 132 ( = )

Jay Lethal - 133 - 133 ( = )

Griff Garrison - 134 - 134 ( = )

Preston Vance - 135 - 136 ( +1)

Michael Nakazawa - 136 - 135 (-1)

Shawn Dean - 137 - 137 ( = )

Vincent - 138 - 138 ( = )

Dralistico - 139 - 140 ( +1)

Sammy Guevara - 140 - 139 (-1)

Dutch - 141 - 141 ( = )

Josh Woods - 142 - 143 ( +1)

Madison Rayne - 143 - 142 (-1)

Chris Jericho - 144 - 144 ( = )

Tony Nese - 145 - 144 (-1)

Satnam Singh - 146 - 147 ( +1)

Ariya Daivari - 147 - 146 (-1)

Paul Wight - 148 - 148 ( = )

Aaron Solo - 149 - 149 ( = )

Anthony Ogogo - 150 - 150 ( = )

Miro - 151 - 151 ( = )

Saraya - 152 - 152 ( = )

Rebel - 153 - 153 ( = )

Serena Deeb - 154 - 154 ( = )

Kamille - 155 - 155 ( = )

Nick Comoroto - 156 - 156 ( = )

Roster Differences

All the changes in the Official AEW Roster since the start of the tournament

LOST:

Malakai Black

Miro

Ricky Starks

Leyla Hirsch

Rey Fenix

Dutch

Vincent

GAINED:

Carlie Bravo

Josh Alexander

Kevin Knight

Mansoor

Mason Madden

Megan Bayne

Mike Bailey

Mina Shirakawa

Shane Taylor

Truth Magnum

Turbo Floyd

Only 149/167 roster names have been present for the entire duration of the tournament

And finally, the highlight of all of our weeks:

TAGS OF THE WEEK

@finndoesntwantthis for letting me make a promise on behalf of the round robin tournament format

@idyllic-idioms for foiling me

@sendhook for this retelling of the Pied Piper story

@powderflower for bringing kink discourse into this

@dykecassidy for going for booker of the year

@13-kuehe-und-ein-melkeimer for the pun

@himbos-hotline for properly cooking cute

@lesbian-with-a-chainsaw for doing what all southern Christians want and making the Bible set in Texas

@sarahcakes613 for talking about a fic I'd like someone to drop the link to

@throesofincreasingwonder for having the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair

@chainsawchuckiet for forgetting my Alamo

@sumeriandeathsquad for perfect use of a smiling emoticon

and finally this suspiciously censored blog who definitely isn't someone who'd have a very strong opinion on this matter

We're down to the home stretch, ladies and germs. Going forward, stat dumps will be by request only, so if there's a stat you want to see, send an ask and I'll drop it right away

This won't include tags of the week because obvs I'm not a monster and I love celebrating the people who engage with my tournament. Tags of the Week will continue as scheduled, every Saturday until the end of the tournament

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

[Rebecca Solnit: photographer unknown]

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 10, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 11, 2025

Today the Department of Labor released the final jobs report of Joe Biden’s presidency. The nation added 256,000 new jobs in December, a number significantly higher than economists expected. That brings the total number of jobs created under Biden to 16.6 million and makes Biden’s the only administration in history to have created jobs every month. Under the Biden administration, the nation has also had the lowest average unemployment rate of any administration in 50 years, ending at 4.1%.

Dan Primack of Axios reported that the U.S. gained more jobs during Biden’s four years than it did under President Donald Trump, Barack Obama, or George W. Bush.

In a statement, Biden noted that when he took office, economic forecasts projected that it would take years for the country to recover fully from the effects of the coronavirus shutdown. In fact, the U.S. economy has grown faster and created more jobs than any other country with an advanced economy. Working-age women are now employed at record levels, and the gap in employment between Black Americans and their white counterparts is at the lowest level on record. The administration has brought the inflation of the early recovery back down almost to target levels, while incomes have increased about $4,000 more than prices. The administration, Biden said, has “achieved the soft landing that few thought was possible.”

CNBC economist Carl Quintanilla quoted Matt Peterson of Barron’s, who wrote: “It looks a lot like U.S. consumers are happy with the way things are...[a]nd so are the markets.... The only one who doesn’t seem to be happy with the way things are is Trump.”

Brian Platt of Bloomberg reports that Trump’s threats of tariffs against Canada already have Canadian officials drafting plans for retaliation. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau told CNN yesterday that Trump is talking about annexing Canada to divert attention from how significantly his tariff plans would raise consumer prices.

As Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo noted late last year, MAGA was never an ideological movement so much as a vehicle to pull together different constituencies in order to get Trump elected president. Since members of those constituencies have little in common, that effort centers around creating a false world that demonizes Democrats and insists they have created a dangerous world that is biased against MAGA. The only one who can stand against them, the story goes, is Trump, who is being persecuted for his defense of his supporters. That narrative has helped MAGAs to find common ground in their defense of Trump and his cronies and their support for Trump’s vows to retaliate against those he considers his enemies.

That impulse appears to be stronger than ever after Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump today in the New York election interference case in which a jury found Trump guilty of 34 felonies for covering up payments to an adult film actress to keep her quiet about their sexual encounter before the 2016 presidential election. Merchan said that he could not impose a punishment without encroaching on the presidency, so in an unusually light sentence, he released Trump without restrictions. As legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained, Trump knew he would not get jail time or a fine, but wanted to avoid the sentencing itself because just a month after the sentencing, the designation of convicted felon will become permanent.

Although a unanimous jury convicted him, Trump insisted the trial was “a political witch hunt…done to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election…. The fact is I’m totally innocent.” He seemed to think that ratings should override reality, telling the judge: “I got the largest number of votes by far by any Republican in history,” he said, “and won, as you know, all seven swing states—won conclusively all seven swing states.”

Trump’s version of the case appeared to be convincing to MAGA pundits and lawmakers, who echoed his calls for retribution. Trump’s lawyer Mike Davis warned: “Right now the Democrats think they’re the hunters. And guess what? On January 20th at noon, they’re going to become the hunted.” Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Ronnie Jackson (R-TX) all echoed Trump. “Trump will win in the end and America wins in 10 days when we get Trump back!!” Jackson posted on X.

MAGA supporters have embraced Trump’s attacks on Democrats and on the government, most notably with their fact-free attacks on the Biden administration's handling of natural disasters—first the terrible flooding in North Carolina, when the right wing spread the lie that government officials were stealing people’s land, and now the terrible fires in Los Angeles that have been fueled in large part by the climate change that cut rainfall since last May and brought an unusually hot summer.

While local, state, and federal officials are doing their best to battle the Los Angeles fires in raging winds and dry conditions, Trump and his allies are lying to create the belief that the Democratic government is to blame for the fires. Trump lied that there is a shortage of water because Democratic governor Gavin Newsom refused to divert water to the area. Others claimed—falsely—that Democratic Mayor Karen Bass cut the budget for the Los Angeles Fire Department, when in fact a 7% increase in funding came through negotiations outside the budget.

They have blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts for the blazes because the Los Angeles Fire Department is headed by Kristin Crowley, an LGBT woman who came up through the ranks in the department over twenty years. And Trump sidekick Elon Musk agreed with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that the fires are part of a “globalist plot” to trigger “total collapse” in the United States. “Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump posted.

In reality, firefighters are hard at work, with crews from both Canada and Mexico working along with Californians to suppress the fires.

Trump’s false version of reality has been a potent weapon against the Democrats, and he is promising to continue constructing that false reality: this week he has said he would replace the head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), who is responsible for collecting the documents that establish the historical record of the actions of the national government. The archivist’s predecessor was the person who pursued the classified documents Trump took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, and Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt he would make sure that he had a loyalist in that position.

But it is an open question whether Trump’s false reality will be as convincing when he is back in the White House as it has been when he was sniping from outside. Trump has promised a number of conflicting things to the different constituencies in MAGA, and it is not clear that he can deliver them. And if he does, it’s not clear the American people will want what he is delivering.

Trump says he will nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services; more than 18,000 physicians have signed a letter warning that he is “unqualified” and “actively dangerous” to the health of Americans. Trump’s plan to elevate him to a position that impacts Americans is “a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death.”

Trump has vowed mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and the reinstatement of Title 42 to close the border to migrants, but as Biden and others repeatedly pointed out when Trump complained about Biden’s ending it, Title 42 is part of a 1944 public health law that can be invoked only to stop disease from coming into the U.S. Once the government declared the coronavirus pandemic over, Title 42 had to go. Yesterday, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times reported that Trump’s advisors, led by Stephen Miller, are searching for a disease to invoke to reinstate Title 42. They have even considered invoking the old trope that immigrants might bring an unknown disease.

But, unlike non-emergency immigration law, Title 42 does not impose penalties for those who try to cross the border repeatedly, a reality Trump used to great effect against Biden as border encounters soared when people made multiple attempts. Now those numbers will be on Trump’s account if he uses Title 42 going forward.

In the meantime, the Biden administration today extended temporary protected status for about a million immigrants from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela who meet certain criteria. Their protection will be extended for 18 months under a 1990 law that stops the deportation of immigrants to countries at war or suffering from natural disasters. The new protection does not cover immigrants from 13 other nations who currently have protected status.

Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post noted that when he was in office before, Trump tried to end protections for Salvadorans and others, saying they came from “sh*thole” countries, and that he is expected to let protections expire during his second term.

When he was running for office, Trump pledged he would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 24 hours, a vow Russian president Vladimir Putin has dismissed. Yesterday, Trump told reporters that Putin wants to meet with him and that they are setting that meeting up; the Kremlin denied that statement was true and noted it would be more appropriate to meet after Trump takes office.

Today the Treasury Department under Biden imposed new sanctions on more than 180 vessels, many of them in Russia's “shadow fleet” that carries oil, as well as on dozens of oil traders, oilfield service providers, insurance companies, and energy officials in an attempt to reduce the money Russia can realize from energy exports. The United Kingdom and Japan also imposed additional sanctions.

According to U.S. Ambassador to China R. Nicholas Burns, the Biden administration is also making a last effort to try to stop China from supplying Russia with equipment that it can use in its war against Ukraine. The U.S. is warning China that it is aligning “with the most unreliable agents of disorder in the international system.”

Trump may or may not be able to turn his promises into reality, but it is clear that some of his supporters’ plans will not go over well with the majority of Americans, especially as Trump fills his Cabinet with billionaires and spends his time next to the richest man in the world, who spent more than $250 million on Trump’s election.

Today, Ben Leonard, Meredith Lee Hill, and Kelsey Tamborrino reported in Politico that the Republicans on the House Budget Committee, chaired by Representative Jodey Arrington (R-TX), have made a list of more than $5 trillion in budget cuts they could make to fund Trump’s deportation plans as well as his tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Options include cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act (more commonly known as Obamacare), the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment in combating climate change, and the supplemental nutrition programs formerly known as food stamps.

For decades now, there has been enough wiggle room in our system to paper over the gulf between image and reality. That slack may continue.

But at least in some places, reality is catching up to the fake stories. During the 2016 presidential campaign, right-wing media spread the lie that leading Democrats were operating a child sex-trafficking wing out of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C. Those lies convinced a man to drive from North Carolina to the restaurant with an assault rifle to stop the crimes, only to discover the story was a hoax. He pleaded guilty to carrying a gun across state lines and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to four years in prison. This week, two North Carolina police officers shot the same man after he pulled a gun on them during a traffic stop. He later died from his injuries.

Yesterday a New York State appeals court refused to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the electronic voting systems company Smartmatic against the parent company of the Fox News Channel for the lies that channel’s hosts told about Smartmatic rigging the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic is suing for $2.7 billion.

And today the figure the “Pizzagate” conspiracy was designed to put into the highest office in the land, and that the Fox News Channel hosts’ lies were intended to keep there, officially became a convict.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[kennysboxergf]

Babysitting

Ranking the Beta Squad + Sidemen based on how much I would need to be paid to babysit them as children

Kenny - €2.50/hour

THE NICEST

Just look at him he can do no harm

A very energetic child tho, running around and not going to sleep

But I think I could distract him easily by just putting on blues clues

Love love he’s adorable

Chunkz (+ bonus Darkest) - €9.50/hour

Look very nice a respectful 

Will be nice

But only when parents are around

As soon as they leave I’m getting flamed like a highschooler

And getting pranked every 20 minutes 

But they look like they’ll listen if I say something 

And they’re gonna be funny so it’s all good 

AJ Shabeel - €11.50/hour

look at him

He’s going to jump on me as soon as he gets the chance

A biter and a kicker

But he looks like he’s be sweet if he calmed down

He’s the kid the parents tell you not to give sugar to

Couch jumper

Sharky - free/hour

this baby is the best baby I’ve ever seen

V Well behaved

Stomps his foot ok the floor when he’s mad but that’s it

I would look after him for free

He doesn’t even look like a messy eater

Respectful I love him

Niko - €19/hour

you would have to payyy go get me go babysit this child

He seems so hyperactive

Would not could not sit still

Asks me for candy before dinner and ice-cream before bed

If I say no I get like a bucket of water poured on me when I walk into a room

Prank MASTER

Absolutely adorable but no thank you

Vik - €6.50/hour

very nice and respectful

Asks BARE questions tho

He would tell me about all of his school project and how me the awards he’s won for them

Would watch a documentary for fun

But he looks nice enough and I would love to pet his duck

Harry - €17.50/hour

chaotic if he wishes to be

But he also looks like he can like pick an activity and stick to it

But still he can bitee 

Ankle biter kid

And he will Not eat anything Green

Or mildly healthy

Even though his parents explicitly told me not to give him sugar he somehow finds it and annoys you all day

Sugar Crashes and finally sleeps

JJ - €8.50/hour

looks nice enough 

Might come at me with all his high and mighty private school attitude 

But I think he’s pretty chill

And he’ll eat whatver his mom left for him

Calm I would say, average

Ethan - €7.50/hour

again looks nice

He seems like a very outdoorsy kid and I am not an outdoorsy person so it would not mix

Probably just watches tv all day

Have a feeling he’ll refuse to put on his clothes

Ankle kicker

Would kick me in the shins and I would cry but then he’s apologise and sit on the couch playing so it’s ok

Will not sleep on time tho that is a STRUGGLE

Josh - €4.50/hour

this boy cannot get up to trouble

Probably sits with his back straight

His smile is adorable 

Corrects ME about facts or smthing

Would ask me to read him a book as a goodnight

Sleeps at a reasonable time without a reminder

<3

Simon - €7.50/hour

would give me the DIRTIEST of looks

All the time 

One of the kids that eavesdrop on ur conversations

Doesn’t strike me as a TV kids would wanna go play with kids in the park 

Biter, bites other kids, me if I piss him off

Overall nice tho, he would give me his “dish” made of playdough

Tobi - :)/hour

I accept one smile from his per hour as payment

Seems like the happiest child ever

But I think if he was in a mood he would be the worst kid every I wouldn’t not want to be near him

Walks around stomping with his arms crossed and wrecks his room apart I would say

So acc like €5.50/hour 

[mariacallous]

President Donald Trump has unveiled his latest tariffs, and they could have significant implications for your wallet.

Trump’s sweeping new tariffs, on top of previous levies and retaliation worldwide, are expected to increase prices for everyday items. The trade wars have already roiled financial markets and plunged businesses into uncertainty — all while economists warn of potentially weakened economic growth and heightened inequality.

Which impacts will be felt by consumers and workers first? And what can households do in the face of so much uncertainty? Here’s what you need to know:

What are tariffs and how will they affect me?

Tariffs are taxes on goods imported from other countries. Companies buying foreign products pay the tariffs imposed on them — and, as a result, face higher costs that are typically passed on to customers.

Trump has argued tariffs will protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition and raise money for the federal government. But since so much of what we buy today relies on a global supply chain, steeper tariffs mean you’ll likely see more expensive prices from the grocery aisle to your next car repair.

“It is going to affect everything in the economy,” said Josh Stillwagon, an associate professor of economics and chair of the Economics Division at Babson College. “There’s this immediate price increase that’s going to be passed on to consumers here, basically as soon as the retailers have to buy new product.”

Will the tariffs affect everyone equally?

No. Experts warn that these tariffs could escalate inequities. Low-income families in particular will feel the costs of key necessities, like food and energy, rise with fewer savings to draw on — significantly straining budgets.

Low-income households often “spend a larger share of their income on essential goods — whether it’s food or other basic products … (like) soap or toothpaste,” said Gustavo Flores-Macías, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University whose research focuses on economic development. Because of this, he said, “even relatively small price increases” will have disproportionate impacts.

Evidence of that disparity will only mount for big-ticket items. Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, points to now-imposed auto tariffs, explaining that projected price hikes of thousands of dollars for a new imported car will be easier for those with larger salaries to absorb.

“That tax is more severe for people who earn less money,” said Chatterjee. “So it’s a regressive tax.”

What about jobs?

Beyond more immediate price pressures, experts also warn that tariffs could contribute to unemployment or lower incomes down the road. Trump has argued that tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the U.S., but if businesses take profit hits or change their supply sources, there could be layoffs worldwide.

“It’s not just the price aspect and purchasing power decreasing,” said Flores-Macías. “As tariffs start to work their way through the economy …. low-income families’ jobs often will be the first to go. And those sectors of the population are most vulnerable.”

Economist Susan Helper, former senior adviser for industrial strategy at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said that there are some cases where tariffs could raise wages, but this doesn’t look likely to be one of them.

“There isn’t enough certainty for businesses to invest and create new and better jobs,” she said. “It takes a few years at minimum to profit off a new facility or factory, and I don’t think people have the confidence that the tariffs will be stable enough that they will have a return on that investment.”

Which consumer goods will be affected?

The tariffs announced by Trump Wednesday, on top of other levies that are already in effect, tax imports from nearly all of America’s trading partners. And U.S. shoppers currently rely on a lot of goods made abroad.

Fruits and vegetables, your next phone purchase, a pharmacy order, new clothes, or a trip to a mechanic who uses auto parts made outside of the U.S. could all be impacted.

The timing of when prices will go up comes down to inventory, Stillwagon said. Much of that will also depend on how businesses prepare and respond to the new levies. While companies may have stocked up on goods in anticipation of these tariffs, he expects some stores to see more immediate price increases.

Prices on perishable groceries will likely increase first, because supermarket inventories need to be replenished more frequently. But a range of other items — like electronics, household appliances, clothing and footwear — could also be affected in the coming weeks and months.

“Annual losses for households at the bottom of the income distribution are estimated to be $980 under the April 2 policy alone,” according to John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecom and fraud at the National Consumers League, who cited an analysis from the Budget Lab at Yale. He said that tariffs will disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with apparel prices predicted to rise 17%.

Consumers are also likely to feel the pinch of tariffs in home buying, Breyault said. The new taxes on building materials are estimated to increase the average costs of a new home by $9,200, according to an analysis by the National Association of Home Builders.

Rerouting supply chains to reemphasize domestic production is also very complex — and could take years. Stillwagon said there are some products, like bananas and coffee, that the U.S. simply can’t substitute to the same scale of production other countries provide. And even for goods that can be made in the U.S., there will still likely be inflation.

“A real worry here is that this won’t just be a one-time price jump,” he said.

For products like coffee, Helper predicts people will likely absorb costs, while changing their shopping choices when it comes to other products.

“I guess you could switch to Coca-Cola if all you want is the caffeine,” she said, lightly. “It will probably be good for California wines.”

Can I do anything to prepare?

Stocking up on what you know you need is a start — but with limits.

“If there are things that you’re buying on a consistent basis — week to week, month to month — I think it’s not a bad idea to try to stock up in advance,” Stillwagon said. But it’s important to avoid panic buying like that seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he and others added. That could cause shortages to emerge sooner and prices to go up faster.

You also don’t want to buy a bunch of items that will eventually go to waste.

“If you do plan stock up on consumables, make sure you have a plan on how to store them properly so you don’t end up having to throw out that 20-pound bag of shrimp, for example, in a few weeks,” said Breyault.

It may also be time to look for substitutes. From electronics to clothing, Flores-Macías says that there could be more affordable secondhand or refurbished options to turn to. And Chatterjee noted consumers may want to start comparing prices of name-brands versus “private,” or generic, labels in major retailers. Others may turn to at-home solutions, he said, such as growing their own vegetables.

Overall, experts say you’ll need to evaluate your budget and consumption habits for the road ahead.

“This is not a hurricane that’s going to be around for seven days and everything goes back to normal afterward. And you stock up on toilet paper (temporarily),” said Chatterjee. “For all you know, this thing could be around until a different administration comes in and changes trade policy.”

Is there anything to watch out for in the coming months?

Consumers should be on the lookout for even greater use of so-called “shrinkflation” on the grocery aisle, according to Breyault. Shrinkflation is a tactic consumer goods manufacturers use to hide cost increases by changing the design of packaging.

“Consumers can prepare for the inflation that the tariffs are likely to exacerbate by getting into the habit of checking the unit price of items on the grocery shelf,” said Breyault. “While not all states require it, where it is required, consumers can more easily compare the per unit price of one item — cereal, for example — to another item.”

[mapplesand]

my ocs digital footprint is probably hell on earth so let's dive into that for fun lol

they're all pretty active on various social media (instagram, tik tok, twitter, tumblr, reddit ect)

Marco

most of the time it's instagram because everyone in their grade follow each others and Marco is an avid stalkers (mostly to girls)

his first account was banned and he keeps getting suspended or restricted on the one he's using since middle school, he mainly post memes or pictures where you barely see him (like guns he stole to his father and you just see his camo pants and combat boots so you know it's him), the memes are just well, edgy boy humor filled with the dumb horny posting about anime girls

don't go through who he follows, it's a mix of girls from his middle school, girls he knows are in his grade and popular model/onlyfan models (and there's also memes account and shit like that)

his twitter is a lot like that but he's just rambling about dumb shit and tweets about whatever he thinks is pissing him off at the moment, then there's the heavy rt of anime girls, his likes are even worse he's probably happy that no one can see them anymore and he probably likes even more fucked up shit there

Tristan is the only one who replies to what he posts and they often bicker about the dumb shit the other put in their timeline

then there's reddit, because of course Marco is a redditor, that's where he get his memes from, he's not really active per say but sometimes he complains about stuff

here's a list of the subreddit he follows and yes I did browse through reddit for 2 hours mindlessly to find all of them because i have too much free time

then he has tumblr because Tristan uses it and he wanted to test it for himself (he thinks tumblr is the gay equivalent of twitter) he probably just post on tcc even if Tristan tells him not to do that or he'll get banned but he thinks it's funny so he does it anyway

and finally again because of Tristan, he uses AO3 and read fucked up shit on there, probably stuff tagged with "dead dove, no not eat" you probably don't wanna know what he's up to

Tristan

he's less active and more of a lurker, on instagram at least, he's only there to follow artists and probably only post pictures of nature or dumb things like rocks or graffitis on walls idk

only rt drawings on twitter and replies to Marco to complain about the porn he sees on his tl because of him, thing is twitter is also his hideout for following more furry artist and well nsfw artists so Marco is gonna make fun of him for that lol

definitely more active on tumblr tho, he just reblogs a lot of stuff but still gains a pretty average following, he reblogs fanarts and stuff he thinks is funny or relatable, he sometimes lurks on the "evil side" of tumblr as he calls it because of morbid curiosity but stops when it feels too depressing

and then he's a big fanfic reader so of course AO3 is on his top 3 website that he uses a lot, he's embarrassed to admit that he read a lot of smut in there and will never let see anyone his bookmarks

he's just pretty normal with his relationship to social media honestly

Josh

he's just a normal guy who uses instagram and tik tok, he probably has snapchat, whatsapp and you know, stuff that normal people uses

he doesn't have any quirks he post on his stories about parties he's in and that's basically it

Tyler

doesn't post much apart from his drawings on instagram, he follows everyone because David just shows up in his dms and is like "hi tyler if you need to find anyone i follow everyone so i can give you anyone's contact if you need it for group projects !" (David is self proclaimed class representative) so Tyler just wanders on people's profile and well, it's a pretty bad look but he doesnt stalk people on purpose

he probably doesn't do anything on social media, you probably wouldn't know it's him if you dont know him

I do think he has reddit but again it's only about informational stuff (psychology and bombs mainly) or art

when he starts talking to Tristan i'm sure he's gonna both make a tumblr account AND an AO3 account, he knows about it because of Carmen but they probably both push him towards the fandom side of the internet even if he doesnt understand anything

[fluentmoviequoter]

When You're Lost in the Darkness, Take Dalton Lambert

Terrifying Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Fic-tober Masterlist

Summary: You and Dalton go to a showing of The Last of Us, debating as to whether or not Josh could survive. When you express your love for a certain character, Dalton gets jealous.

Warnings: spoilers for The Last of Us (2023 tv show and 2013 game), fluff, playful fighting?, Dalton gets jealous, a tiny confession?. 1.1k+ words.

A/N: Is this me projecting my love for The Last of Us and Joel Miller? Absolutely, it is. Also, I find it funny that these titles are progressively getting worse. Anyway, hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think! :)

“NINE HOURS?”

“Give or take,” you answer, smiling at Dalton’s dramatics. “It’s a series, Dalton. Nine episodes averaging an hour and a short intermission, so, nine hours.”

Dalton looks to the ceiling and groans as if he hasn’t been counting down the minutes to this week’s Terrifying Tuesday horror movie showing. Although he is still upset that they ‘misled’ everyone by showing a TV show. With you by his side, he’ll get over it.

“Why? Do you not want to spend that much time with me?” you ask with an exaggerated pout.

Dalton looks down quickly, his eyes locked on yours. “No, that’s not what I meant!”

You smirk at him, and he rolls his eyes before looking past you.

“Dalton, don’t,” you warn.

“Don’t what?” He asks, acting innocent before he tackles you against his bed.

“Tackle me.”

“Isn’t it almost time to go?”

“You sure you’re okay staying the whole time? I can ask Chris to come get you earlier if you need me to.”

“You’re not willing to leave with me this time?” Dalton asks, a hand over his heart.

“And leave Joel Miller? Not likely,” you answer as you walk out his door. “Are you coming?”

“Who’s Joel Miller?” Dalton asks himself as he follows you, catching up to your side.

“I’m telling you now,” you state before Dalton can ask any questions, “your dad would not survive the first episode. Argue all you want, but I’m right.”

“It’s apocalyptic, right?” Dalton clarifies. “I’m pretty sure he’d live. He’s survived the Further, it can’t be that different.”

“Sure,” you say, smiling because you know just how wrong Dalton is.

‣‣‣‣‣

The moment Joel is shown for the first time, you sit up a little straighter and smile to yourself. Even before they say his name, Dalton is sure this is the ‘Joel Miller’ you mentioned earlier. He’s unsure why you’d rather stay and watch Joel than spend time with him. Or maybe he does know and is trying to delude himself out of his growing jealousy over a fictional character. 

Dalton watches you more than the show, especially when your eyes tear up as Sarah’s death scene approaches. He wraps an arm around you and pulls you into his side, feeling slightly less jealous when you begin tracing shapes on his hand after pulling it into your lap. 

“See?” you whisper, your voice shaking because of the tears. Dalton gently wipes his thumbs under your eyes as you say, “Josh would not survive. Especially if one of you died.”

“You’re wrong,” Dalton argues weakly, his resolve crumbling at the sight of your tears. “He would survive for us.”

You nod silently and look back to the screen, your eyes widening slightly at the sight of post-outbreak Joel. Dalton thinks maybe the tears were easier to handle than the jealousy.

“You’re still wrong,” you whisper harshly several minutes later. 

‣‣‣‣‣

When Joel kills the FEDRA agent stopping them at the gate because he threatened Ellie, Dalton tenses beside you. You poke his arm and raise your eyebrows, asking for an explanation.

“You’re right,” he says quickly. “My dad wouldn’t survive. He couldn’t kill someone, and if he saw a clicker face-to-face… he’d just freeze and get infected, or worse.”

“It took less than half an episode for you to agree with me,” you say, in awe. “Welcome to the dark side.”

‣‣‣‣‣

In the second episode, when Joel is starting to tolerate Ellie a little more while on the road, you imagine if it were you and Josh in their shoes. The thought makes you laugh against Dalton and he immediately wants to know what’s so funny.

Furrowing your brows at his insistence to know what you’re thinking, you answer, “If I were stuck in that situation with Josh, I would sacrifice myself to the clickers. Pull a you-know-who and go up in a fireball if I had to.”

“Don’t say that,” Dalton chides quietly before looking back to the screen.

You’re not sure where his sudden interest in The Last of Us came from, but you’re glad that he seems to be enjoying the show and that you have something to do together. 

‣‣‣‣‣

The eighth episode starts, and you smile at Dalton. You're obviously waiting for something and Dalton hopes it isn't Joel Miller-related, or worse, another character you like. 

The first scene with James finally comes on and you grab Dalton's arm, shaking him with your excitement.

"Another one?" Dalton whispers, more to himself.

"He voiced Joel in the game," you explain, leaning in to talk to him, your hands still wrapped around his arms. "It's like Joel Miller-ception. And Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie, is in the next one."

"Who's she play?"

You turn to Dalton with a look bordering on disgust. "Why would I tell you that?"

Dalton raises his hands in surrender, smiling when you lean against him to continue watching.

"I love this show," you whisper, loud enough for Dalton to hear.

Regardless of how he feels or how easily you can make him jealous, Dalton is glad he came and gets to experience something you love so much. Even if he attempts to size up Joel during every scene. 

‣‣‣‣‣

It’s nearly four in the morning when the last episode ends, and the lights in the park come on. Dalton helps you up, pulling you against his chest. You look up at him, unsure as to what he’s doing.

“Do you like Joel?” he asks quietly, rubbing a hand up and down your back. 

“Are you jealous?”

Dalton clenches his jaw and looks over your head before answering, “Yeah. A little. You just seemed so happy every time he was on screen.”

“Dalton.” You guide his chin to face you as you say, “I look at you like that, too, you just never seem to notice.”

“So, you don’t like Joel?” he asks after a moment of getting lost in your eyes.

You drop your arms and step back, answering, “Oh no, I love Joel Miller.”

“You’re not helping any,” Dalton calls as you turn and begin walking. He catches up, wrapping his arm around your waist this time. “Did you mean what you said? About me.”

“Of course, I do. And not only because you agree with me that Josh would die before the first episode ended.”

“Could he survive next week?”

“I honestly don’t know. How does he feel about summer camps?”

Dalton watches you as you return to the dorms, thinking that he needs to pay more attention if you’re going to keep looking at him like you looked at Joel.

[misfitwashere]

April 3, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 4READ IN APP

Trump’s announcement last night that he was placing high tariffs on countries around the world came after the stock market closed, but it drove stock futures dramatically downward. Overseas, global markets also plunged. Today, before the stock market opened, Trump posted on his social media site: “THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Fittingly, it was former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who rang the bell opening the stock market today. Giuliani represented Newsmax, the right-wing media channel with ties to Trump. As soon as the market opened, stocks fell straight down. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 1,679 points, falling about 4%, its biggest fall since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in 2020. The S&P 500 fell 274 points, or 4.8%. The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 1,050 points, or almost 6%. The losses wiped out about $2 trillion.

Trump justified the tariffs by declaring that the U.S. is in the midst of a national emergency, but this afternoon he left the White House for a long weekend in Florida, where his private Doral resort outside of Miami is holding the first domestic golf tournament of the season of LIV Golf, which is financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s tariffs are not an economic policy. Tariffs are generally imposed on products, not on nations. By placing them on countries, the White House was able to arrive at its numbers with a nonsensical formula that appears to have been reached by asking AI how to impose tariffs—a suggestion so outlandish that I dismissed when I saw it last night, but economist Paul Krugman today identified it as being a likely possibility. CNBC’s Steve Liesman said: “Nobody ever heard of this formula. Nobody has ever used this formula. So I’m sorry, but the conclusion seems to be the president kind of made this up as he went along....”

Today, former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted: “It’s now clear that the [Trump] Administration computed reciprocal tariffs without using tariff data. This is to economics what creationism is to biology, astrology is to astronomy, or RFK thought is to vaccine science. The Trump tariff policy makes little sense EVEN if you believe in protectionist mercantilist economics.”

Editor of The American Prospect David Dayen notes that there is no apparent policy behind the tariffs, no thought, for example, as to whether it is even possible for the U.S. to ramp up the kind of domestic manufacturing Trump claims to want. While Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS, “You’re going to see employment leaping starting today,” in fact, both automaker Stellantis and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool announced layoffs because of the tariffs.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo points out that building and establishing a new plant in the U.S. will take a minimum of three to five years even if investors are inclined to support one, but Victoria Guida reported in Politico that corporate executives are saying they cannot invest in manufacturing until they can project costs, and Trump is far too unpredictable to enable them to do that with any confidence.

Dayen writes that Trump’s tariffs are essentially sanctions on the rest of the world. His behavior is, Dayen says, “no different from a mob boss moving into town and sending his thugs to every business on Main Street, roughing up the proprietors and asking for protection money so they don’t get pushed out of business.” Dayen notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued last year for using the extraordinary power of the U.S. economy to force other countries to do as the U.S. wants, creating a U.S. sphere of influence through economic pressure.

Extending the comparison to a mob boss, Dayen notes that “protection money” could take many forms: “curbing migration, taking in more U.S. farm exports or weapons systems, reducing industrial capacity in China and forcing more consumption, buying long-dated U.S. debt on the cheap, siding with a war strategy against Iran, literally anything the White House wants.”

Trump’s son Eric appeared to confirm that the tariffs are a shakedown when he posted: “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [Trump]. The first to negotiate will win—the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life.…” Foreign affairs journalist David Rothkopf was more graphic: “These aren’t tariffs,” he wrote. “They are a horse’s head in the bed of (almost) every world government and business leader.” Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman suggested that if a government refused to negotiate with Trump, that country’s major companies should deal directly with Trump, exempting that company’s products from tariffs in exchange for a new factory or some other investment Trump wants.

Trump is overturning the past 80 years of global trade cooperation in order to concentrate power in his own hands. Congress began to take down the tariff walls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when it passed the 1934 Reciprocal Tariff Act enabling the president to lower the high tariff rates Republicans had established with the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff. That tariff had worsened the Great Depression. With the turn away from tariff walls and toward international cooperation, global trade has fostered international cooperation and created the rising prosperity of the twentieth century.

“The global economy is fundamentally different today than it was yesterday,” Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said today. “The system of global trade anchored on the United States…is over. Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over. The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services is over. While this is a tragedy, it is also the new reality.”

Ending systems of global free trade dovetails with the idea of getting rid of the international rules-based order created after World War II. After that horrific war, world leaders decided to create a system of international institutions, like the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to provide ways in which countries could protect their sovereignty and work out their differences without going to war.

Trump’s threats against other countries, including Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, are a direct rejection of those principles. That rejection reinforces the Trump regime’s embrace of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which invaded Ukraine first in 2014 and again in 2022 and is trying to justify grabbing Ukrainian territory. Under Trump, the U.S. is siding with Russia rather than Ukraine in this war in a stunning rejection of the institutions and principles that have stabilized the globe since World War II.

Putin is now threatening NATO countries, prompting them to prepare for defense. “We are not at war,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said recently, “but we are certainly not at peace either.”

Some of those advocating tariff walls and forcing our allies to maintain their own defense suggest that creating a U.S. sphere of influence is the best way to counter a rising China, but there is no doubt that the concept of such spheres caters to the worldview of Russian and Chinese leaders. As scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder points out, weakening the U.S. and its allies also benefits Russia by increasing Russia’s power relative to other countries, making it easier to establish the multipolar world Russia wants.

The Trump administration is also undermining post–World War II democracy at home. Last night, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) identified Trump’s tariffs as “a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.” Murphy pointed to Trump’s shakedown of prominent law firms, four of which he has attacked with executive orders. He also pointed to Trump’s attacks on universities, withholding government funding until their administrators bow to MAGA’s ideological demands.

Sarah D. Wire of USA Today reported that earlier this week the Institute for Museum and Library Studies was effectively closed, and over the past two days the administration told libraries across the country that grants awarded last year have been terminated. Today the administration cut federal grants for arts and humanities across the country: museums, archives, historic sites, educational projects, and so on—all defunded. It also cut this year’s funding for National History Day, a popular history program in schools that is already underway.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services slashed jobs and programs in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even as measles continues to spread and two Louisiana infants have died of whooping cough. Today, news broke that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is implementing a hiring freeze even as flash floods and tornadoes just today have killed at least seven people in the Midwest to the mid-South.

The plan, as Vice President J.D. Vance explained in a 2021 interview, is to destroy the current government, business, educational, cultural, and scientific pillars of the United States in order to replace them with a new system, although there is tension between the Project 2025 wing of MAGA and the technocrats’ wing over whether that new system will be a theocracy or a technocracy. In either case, it will be an authoritarian government in which power and money concentrate in a very few hands.

The administration’s crusade against the state of Maine shows what this looks like. After Maine governor Janet Mills told Trump the state would follow state and federal law rather than bow to his demands, acting Social Security Administration commissioner Leland Dudek canceled contracts permitting Maine parents to apply for Social Security numbers for their newborns from the hospital and for Maine families to report deaths from funeral homes. Told such a change would risk identity theft and wasteful spending, Dudek told the agency to do it anyway in order to punish Mills.

After an outcry, Dudek backtracked, but yesterday the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced she was freezing federal funds for Maine educational programs. The Trump administration would stand against “a leftist social agenda,” Rollins wrote.

The problem for Republicans is that while the sort of inflammatory language Rollins used has been a staple of the party for decades, the MAGA agenda itself is not popular. Only about 4% of voters who knew about Project 2025 wanted to see it enacted, and billionaire Elon Musk, who runs the “Department of Government Efficiency” that is slashing through government programs, is so unpopular that his support for a candidate in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election actually appeared to have hurt, rather than helped, that candidate.

Now party members have to deal with the fact their president has tanked the economy by enacting what the National Review says is likely the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history. Now countries around the globe are imposing reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. while also negotiating their own trade agreements that cut out the U.S. Those agreements are not only for products like soybeans, but also for weapons, a development the administration is protesting.

Republican members of Congress could stop Trump at any time. In the case of tariffs, they could simply reassert their constitutional power to manage tariffs. If they choose not to and the economy doesn’t recover and thrive as Trump keeps promising, voters can be expected to hold them, as well as him, to account.

Right now Republican leaders appear to be hoping that Trump’s attempt to extort other countries will work and the tariffs will be short lived. But their enthusiasm for that strategy seems to be well under control.

Today, Bill Ackman resorted to defending the tariffs by posting: “Sometimes the best strategy in a negotiation is convincing the other side you are crazy.”

—

[blueikeproductions]

So the current hullabaloo is Hasbro isn’t funding any more movies going forward due to a string of flops, TFONE among them, and people are freaking out.

Now having looked over it, they never say they’re NOT making more movies, they’re just not going to help fund more going forward, as stuff like Snake Eyes and TFONE proved to be a huge money sink. They’re also not going to be creatively involved as much either, though going by some fans’ poor reaction still to Bayformers, maybe Hasbro was never THAT involved to begin with.

So what does this mean going forward?

Heck if I know. None of us truly understand what’s going on here, but what we can infer is at the end of the day is Hasbro doesn’t want to pay out of pocket for more potential flops.

Most likely it’ll just be purely licensing similar to Skybound, where the Energon Universe was given the opportunity to do what it wants, and in this case, did so to great success after they won over Hasbro with their pitch.

In other words Paramount and/or Skydance pay Hasbro a fee to use the Transformers in movies, vs it being a more direct collaboration like before.

Until something else is stated, it sounds like the GI Joe team up movie is still a go, along with future TF projects with Josh Cooley. Transformers as a brand still does well for Hasbro overall, and we’re still on track to get CyberWorld and Wild King next year. So situation is mostly normal.

Still, the best we can do is speculate.

A big problem with IDW and post RiD15 cartoons were this huge insistence on making the Decepticons sympathetic, there by making Megatron into an Autobot. I will die on this hill, this has been a major issue. The average Joe wants Megatron to be a villain again, they want the Decepticons to be an evil empire bent on galactic conquest. That is the story we’ve had for 40 years, clearly that formula worked. Changing it now has led to same apathy the Pokémon anime is stuck in since it swapped out Ash for Liko.

The problem I continue to have is if they want to retire the Decepticons and Megatron as the villains that’s fine, they just need to pick a successor but they’re still so unwilling to do so. The Terrorcons and Quintessons feel like that’s what Hasbro wants, but for some reason we haven’t had a definitive modern take on the Autobots fighting them instead of the Decepticons.

Mandroid and his Arachnamechs feel like another attempt at proper villain faction, but they screwed it up too.

The Quintessons took over later in EarthSpark, but their main leader (that we know of) is dead now, and the show haphazardly has otherwise retuned to the Decepticons being the antagonists.

Prior to that in WFC and Cyberverse, it felt like there was a push to get the new Mercenary faction up and running as villains…

But that went nowhere too. Not helped is Hasbro seems to be ignoring this group entirely now…

Skybound started their TF book with the usual Decepticon conflict, albeit cranked up to 11, but trained the idea started with the first Bay film and TFA, by slowly building up to Megatron. The leaders now on Earth are Soundwave leading the main faction while Starscream has taken command of a splinter faction made up of the Combaticons and Astrotrain. Shockwave was the leader on Cybertron but, barring anything left field, he’s dead now, with an injured Megatron having escaped Cobra-La, but his current plans and whereabouts unknown atm.

So on top of being indecisive with replacement factions, it also feels like most want a return to basics, which means the traditional Autobots vs Decepticons approach. Skybound has largely succeeded in this front with Transformers, same with their GI Joe series. It’s probably because of the success of the Energon Universe Hasbro and Paramount still want to push forward with their own crossover movie, and as much as fans want to complain about Joes in their Autobots, the two series have crossed over frequently SINCE the 80’s. I’m actually more surprised Galaxy Force and Sigma 6 didn’t team up nor did Prime and its Joe counterpart. We ALL know Cobra Commander would want to use the Earth Cyber Planet Key for dumb nefarious reasons and I’m sad we never got Cobra aligned Destrons doing a Force Chip Ignition lol.

Anyhow, on the off chance more TFONE stuff continues, my guess is the former approach will be taken: the heroic Autobots vs the evil Quintessons, with Optimus convincing Megatron to begrudgingly help them.

I believe it was said the villains for CyberWorld are still Decepticons but the choices give me a Predacon and Terrorcon vibe.

Wild King on the Japanese end, post EarthSpark, makes me wonder if we’re reverting to how things used to be. Transformers is co owned by Hasbro and Takara, but both companies go their own directions with the characters, which is how we got stuff like Victory, Car Robots, Beast Wars II, and recently the Trigger PV.

What happens post EarthSpark and post TFONE will be very interesting going forward if nothing else. Skybound’s continued success will probably influence things to some extent as I strongly feel going back to basics is what’s going to help in the long run.

[oldiesstationlover11607]

Neighbours - Josh Dun x Reader

Pairing: Josh Dun x Reader and Tyler Joseph!Best Friend x Reader

Warnings: None! Super fluffy <3

A/N: This is my first writing post ever! This came from a writing prompt where the reader ends up with Tyler but I was having a Josh day when I wrote it so it's more focused on Josh! Hope you enjoy and feedback is appreciated!!

It was early winter, two weeks from the end of the school term and our short winter break. Driving to and from school were some of my favorite moments during the week. I got to listen to anything I wanted as loud as I wanted to, which included some of my friends’ music. Parking outside the house, I got out and unlocked the door, letting my dog out. A small golden cockapoo who always jumped up on me whenever she saw me. 

“I missed you too Liberty,” I laughed and grabbed her leash, heading out to take her for a walk. My neighbor and classmate Josh always met me and took his dog Jim for a walk with us. Liberty led the way as we walked over to his house, but before we could knock on the door a white car drove past us. 

“Hey!” It was Josh, running late from school. Josh was almost never late but looking close at the car I noticed another boy was in the car, a basketball player in their year above us.

The car parked and Josh got out running over and giving Liberty a good cuddle. The other boy got out of the car, he was wearing a white basketball jersey with red writing on it, number 3. 

“Oh yeah, this is Tyler,” Josh turned back to look at the boy. Tyler. He gave me a shy wave. I’d heard about him through the grapevine, he was one of the best highschool basketball players in the region. 

“How did you guys meet each other?” I asked, knowing full well that Tyler was probably trying to use Josh for his grades. While Josh was considered cool by the jocks, he would never be seen hanging out with them. 

“Tyler came up to me in homeroom and showed me a demo he made a few weeks ago. He wanted me to play something on the kit for him.” Of course it was a music thing. Josh couldn’t pass up an opportunity to play music with people, even if the person was a jock. “I’ve actually got to set up the kit inside. Tyler, do you want to go around the block with y/n?” Tyler nodded and Josh went inside. 

“Josh has told me a lot about you,” Tyler looked forward at Liberty as she led the way. 

“Oh really?” I mutter. 

“Yep. He told me you hate jocks,” Tyler tugs on the collar of his jersey. Of course Josh told him that. It wasn’t that I hated jocks, I just didn’t trust them. Tyler was no exception. “You do know I only started playing basketball because I had no one to hang out with, right? I’ve always liked music. I’ve seen you and Josh hang out together at the music store before, you’re both so talented.” He was trying to make me like him. Tyler was a quiet boy. Yes, he was popular and a great sportsman but there was something different about him. Music was that something. Tyler wasn’t the tallest of the basketball players at our school, he didn’t have the average build, nor did he have the normal haircut of a basketball player. I’d seen him in middle school with grown out hair before he buzzed it off once he became a senior. The buzzcut worked for him, to some extent. 

“I’ve seen you too. You’re a good player Tyler, not that I care much about sports.” He laughed at that. We turned the block and started to walk back towards Josh’s house. I was alway tired the moment I got home from school. Josh and I normally talked out the day together, I wished he was there with me. 

“Thanks, y/n.” We turned into Josh’s driveway and I waved goodbye. 

After a couple months of Tyler spending Fridays and weekends at Josh’s place, we’d all become good friends. Even Tyler and I had spent some time alone, Tuesday lunchtimes we hung out in the library and worked on our projects together. 

“Y/n! You won’t believe this,” Josh ran into the library with Tyler following close behind. Josh had picked me up and spun me around in excitement. 

“What?” I laughed once I felt my feet back on the ground. This had to be good. Tyler had caught up to Josh and stood next to him with a smile on his face. They both stayed quiet. 

“What?” I urged further. 

“Do you want to tell her?” Josh turned to Tyler.

“Hmm, do you?” he responded. 

“Just tell me!” I laughed, shoving Josh away as he wrapped his arms around me once again. 

“We got a record deal,” Tyler beamed. 

“No. No way!” I looked up at Josh, who was still holding me and smiling down at me. “I told you Tyler, I told you you’re talented!” I could feel the happiness flowing through my veins. “What are we gonna do to celebrate?” 

“I’ve got work tonight but you and Ty should definitely do something together,” Josh suggested. Ty had a basketball game after school which would probably end around five and Josh started working at 4:30. The plan we’d made was for me to hang with both of them at different times that day and the next we’d all get together and listen to their tracks for their sophomore album. The perfect plan. We all sat down for lunch, hiding the food under the table so we’re not caught by the librarian, and worked on our assignments. 

“Wait, so are you guys going to drop out?” I asked Josh. Tyler was playing his game while Josh and I were sitting in his car. 

“I don’t think so. We’ll just record during the semester and then once we graduate we’ll probably tour,” he responded. Josh and I were sitting in the back seats, before we met Tyler that was where we ate lunch, in Josh’s car in the school parking lot. 

“I’d miss you if you went on tour Josh,” I sighed. He ran a hand through his curly hair and looked at me with a look I couldn’t entirely understand. “What?”

“You’re beautiful. You know that right?” I still didn’t understand what was going on. “Come here,” Josh opened his arms and I moved so I was sitting right next to him. “No matter what happens with this record deal, I will always be here for you. But I promised myself that if anything ever happened with my music I’d tell you how I really felt about you.” I stared blankly up at his hazel eyes. 

“I like you too,” I grinned before he could say anything, “if I didn’t like you I wouldn’t have let you hug me like you do.” He let out a sigh of relief and rested his forehead against mine. 

“Good. I’m gonna kiss you now.” I nodded as he placed his lips gently against mine. They were soft, warm. He cupped my jaw and tilted my face up towards his so he could reach down and kiss me. I placed my hand around the back of his neck and tangled my fingers through his curls. He groaned when I pulled away, “I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” Me too Josh, me too. 

“Games over!” Tyler opened the passenger door to find us still cuddling in the back seat. 

“Did you win?” I asked, still leaning against Josh. 

“Yup,” Tyler grinned.

“Of course you did,” Josh laughed as we both got out of the car hugged, him sneaking a quick kiss on my shoulder. We’d agreed to wait till the next day to properly tell Tyler what was going on, let us enjoy it for a wee bit. Ty and I walked to his car, he threw his bag in the trunk and got in the driver’s seat. 

“Where you wanna go?” he asked, pulling out of the parking lot. 

“The lookout?” Tyler and I had our own spot in Columbus, a little lookout about 10 minutes away from school. Ty nodded and handed me the aux cord. 

“So, what was up with you and Josh?” He asked as I scrolled through my phone to play some music.

“Huh?”

“You guys were acting all funny in the backseat,” he raised an eyebrow. 

“No we weren’t.”

“Dude yes you were!” Tyler laughed, “I know he likes you Pip.” Damn it Josh! Of course you tell Tyler everything!

“He kissed me,” I had to bite my lip to avoid smiling like an idiot. 

“No!” Tyler reacted like a teenage girl, “I knew it!!” I nodded excitedly as we pulled into our usual spot. “I knew you guys would end up together.”

“Sure you did Ty. But you can’t tell him I told you because we were gonna wait till tomorrow to tell you.” 

“I can’t believe he held himself back from bragging to me,” he scoffed. Tyler’s reaction was better than I thought it would be. “I can’t wait till you guys name your son Tyler.”

“What?!”

//

Please submit any requests y'all have! I love to write so let me know if you've got any!

[codecan]

Ice cream flavors I think watchdogs characters would enjoy;

(In order of game:3 def missing a few ppl tho😭 my memory’s shit)

Aiden: standard vanilla, MAYBE chocolate

Clara: Rocky road or something so absurd you can only get at a specific shop (like brownie caramel.. salted.. butterflies or sm??)

Ray; cookies n cream or like .. something with peanut butter

Jordi: chocolate. (Would fight you over choc v vanilla)

Damien: BUTTER FUCKING PECAN. THAT OLD MAN FLAVOR

JB: Blue raspberry shaved ice or anything neon radioactive blue

Nicky: Orange sherbet

Jackson: Superman.

Lena: strawberry w/ strawberries on top

Marcus: chocolate, he likes it simple maybe w/ sprinkles

Wrench: vanillaw/ 99 toppings

Sitara: strawberry.

Josh: will only eat vanilla BEAN and a specific brand (I’m projecting)

Horatio: mint chip type of guy

Sabine: she prefers custard to ice cream or something

Dalton: .. vanilla he is the average white man

Bagley (if he could eat): A VERY SPECIFIC HARD TO FIND FLAVOR OF CHOCOLATE. LIKE SO HARD TO FIND YOU WILL GO ACROSS THE ENTIRE CITY OF LONDON TO FIND IT

Bradley (not Bagley); ice cream cake.

Skye: … sherbet. Any flavor she looks like a sherbet girl

[mostbelovedaewwrestlertournament]

Most Beloved AEW Wrestler Tournament 2: Week 15 Statistics Dump

We are entering the final 50 days of this tournament

Total votes thus far: 586,268 (average of 45.37 votes per bracket, down from 49.41 last week)

The Ties

For some reason, it feels fitting that Bryan and Mariah tied. I'm not sure why. They just both have a very similar vibe. Like that Mariah is who Bryan would have been if he was born a British woman

The Crushing Defeats

Holy shit we had a lot of unanimous victories this week. 11, in fact, illustrated in this handy diagram

This marks Kamille's 6th unanimous loss, Miro's 4th and Paul Wight's 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

The Top 20

Below are the stats for the Top 20 for days 99-105

Top Teams

This is a new segment I'm trying out where I compare the OFFICIAL stables, according to the roster page. Wrestlers will only be counted as part of this segment if they have a team/stable name in their photo. This means unofficial stables like 2point0+Garcia or Learning Tree are not counted. Below are the average number of votes the team has as well as their most beloved member

death riders - 5944 (Wheeler Yuta - 7821)

the opps - 5597 (Samoa Joe - 6804)

hounds of hell - 5446 (Julia Hart - 6545)

the elite - 5222 (Matthew Jackson - 5824)

bang bang gang - 4701 (Jay White - 7101)

the paragon - 4693 (Kyle O'Reilly - 5546)

patriarchy - 4619 (Christian Cage - 5695)

don callis family - 4410 (Konosuke Takeshita - 6818)

dark order - 3715 (Evil Uno - 5130)

private party - 3417 (Isiah Kassidy - 3839)

the vendetta - 3317 (Deonna Purrazzo - 3338)

spanish announce project - 3055 (Serpentico - 3359)

hurt syndicate - 3014 (Shelton Benjamin - 3324)

top flight - 2891 (Dante Martin - 3102)

ftr - 2679 (Cash Wheeler - 3014)

the kingdom - 2541 (Matt Taven - 3000)

la faccion ingobernable - 2431 (The Beast Mortos - 4378)

cru - 2307 (Lio Rush - 2562)

butcher & blade - 2257 (Butcher - 2692)

shane taylor promotions - 2032 (Lee Moriarty - 3631)

gates of agony - 1713 (Bishop Kaun - 1772)

premier athletes - 1199 (Josh Woods - 1235)

outcasts - 979 (Saraya - 979)

Yes, technically Saraya is the only remaining member of the Outcasts, but just because she wins by default doesn't mean she doesn't win

The Stock Market

Kenny Omega - 1 - 1 ( = )

Orange Cassidy - 2 - 2 ( = )

Adam Page - 3 - 3 ( = )

Toni Storm - 4 - 4 ( = )

Swerve Strickland - 5 - 5 ( = )

Willow Nightingale - 6 - 6 ( = )

Wheeler Yuta - 7 - 7 ( = )

Kris Statlander - 8 - 8 ( = )

Eddie Kingston - 9 - 9 ( = )

MJF - 10 - 10 ( = )

Chuck Taylor - 11 - 11 ( = )

Jon Moxley - 12 - 12 ( = )

Jay White - 13 - 13 ( = )

Will Ospreay - 14 - 14 ( = )

Konosuke Takeshita - 15 - 16 ( +1)

Samoa Joe - 16 - 15 (-1)

Julia Hart - 17 - 17 ( = )

Mariah May - 18 - 18 ( = )

Nyla Rose - 19 - 19 ( = )

Matthew Jackson - 20 - 20 ( = )

Harley Cameron - 21 - 21 ( = )

Christian Cage - 22 - 22 ( = )

Kyle Fletcher - 23 - 23 ( = )

Kyle O'Reilly - 24 - 24 ( = )

Kip Sabian - 25 - 28 ( +3)

Queen Aminata - 26 - 25 (-1)

Athena - 27 - 26 (-1)

Hook - 28 - 27 (-1)

Claudio Castagnoli - 29 - 31 ( +2)

Kazuchika Okada - 30 - 30 ( = )

Jamie Hayter - 31 - 33 ( +2)

Daniel Garcia - 32 - 29 (-3)

Brody King - 33 - 34 ( +1)

Kota Ibushi - 34 - 32 (-2)

Katsuyori Shibata - 35 - 35 ( = )

Nicholas Jackson - 36 - 36 ( = )

PAC - 37 - 37 ( = )

Evil Uno - 38 - 38 ( = )

Bryan Danielson - 39 - 39 ( = )

Anthony Bowens - 40 - 43 ( +3)

Hikaru Shida - 41 - 40 (-1)

Powerhouse Hobbs - 42 - 41 (-1)

Mark Briscoe - 43 - 42 (-1)

Danhausen - 44 - 44 ( = )

Adam Cole - 45 - 45 ( = )

Mercedes Mone - 46 - 46 ( = )

Riho - 47 - 47 ( = )

Jack Perry - 48 - 48 ( = )

Buddy Matthews - 49 - 49 ( = )

Abadon - 50 - 52 ( +2)

Mark Davis - 51 - 50 (-1)

The Beast Mortos - 52 - 51 (-1)

Skye Blue - 53 - 53 ( = )

Thunder Rosa - 54 - 56 ( +2)

Penelope Ford - 55 - 54 (-1)

Darby Allin - 56 - 58 ( +2)

Killswitch - 57 - 55 (-2)

Ruby Soho - 58 - 57 (-1)

Juice Robinson - 59 - 60 ( +1)

Emi Sakura - 60 - 61 ( +1)

Marina Shafir - 61 - 62 ( +1)

Anna Jay - 62 - 63 ( +1)

Komander - 63 - 59 (-4)

Trent Beretta - 64 - 65 ( +1)

Sting - 65 - 64 (-1)

Matt Menard - 66 - 66 ( = )

Bandido - 67 - 67 ( = )

Hologram - 68 - 68 ( = )

Nick Wayne - 69 - 69 ( = )

Austin Gunn - 70 - 70 ( = )

Isiah Kassidy - 71 - 72 ( +1)

Yuka Sakazaki - 72 - 71 (-1)

Roderick Strong - 73 - 73 ( = )

Malakai Black - 74 - 74 ( = )

John Silver - 75 - 76 ( +1)

Lee Moriarty - 76 - 75 (-1)

Colten Gunn - 77 - 77 ( = )

Red Velvet - 78 - 78 ( = )

Cope - 79 - 80 ( +1)

Mr Brodie Lee - 80 - 79 (-1)

Dustin Rhodes - 81 - 84 ( +3)

Keith Lee - 82 - 89 ( +7) MOST SPOTS UP

Serpentico - 83 - 81 (-2)

Bryan Keith - 84 - 85 ( +1)

Deonna Purrazzo - 85 - 86 ( +1)

Ricochet - 86 - 88 ( +2)

Shelton Benjamin - 87 - 82 (-5) TIED FOR MOST SPOTS DOWN

Billy Gunn - 88 - 83 (-5) TIED FOR MOST SPOTS DOWN

Taya Valkyrie - 89 - 87 (-2)

Angelo Parker - 90 - 91 ( +1)

Big Bill - 91 - 90 (-1)

Dante Martin - 92 - 92 ( = )

Lance Archer - 93 - 93 ( = )

Cash Wheeler - 94 - 96 ( +2)

Matt Taven - 95 - 97 ( +2)

Marq Quen - 96 - 94 (-2)

Max Caster - 97 - 98 ( +1)

Ricky Starks - 98 - 95 (-3)

Leyla Hirsch - 99 - 99 ( = )

AR Fox - 100 - 103 ( +3)

Angelico - 101 - 100 (-1)

Leila Grey - 102 - 102 ( = )

Bobby Lashley - 103 - 104 ( +1)

The Butcher - 104 - 101 (-3)

Darius Martin - 105 - 105 ( = )

Kiera Hogan - 106 - 106 ( = )

Alex Reynolds - 107 - 108 ( +1)

Lio Rush - 108 - 107 (-1)

Johnny TV - 109 - 109 ( = )

Rey Fenix - 110 - 110 ( = )

Wardlow - 111 - 113 ( +2)

Brandon Cutler - 112 - 112 ( = )

Luther - 113 - 111 (-2)

Diamante - 114 - 114 ( = )

Brian Cage - 115 - 116 ( +1)

Mercedes Martinez - 116 - 115 (-1)

Dax Harwood - 117 - 117 ( = )

Matt Sydal - 118 - 118 ( = )

Tay Melo - 119 - 119 ( = )

Mike Bennett - 120 - 120 ( = )

Action Andretti - 121 - 122 ( +1)

Scorpio Sky - 122 - 121 (-1)

Lee Johnson - 123 - 123 ( = )

Dr Britt Baker DMD - 124 - 124 ( = )

Colt Cabana - 125 - 125 ( = )

The Blade - 126 - 126 ( = )

Bishop Kaun - 127 - 127 ( = )

Toa Liona - 128 - 129 ( +1)

Ortiz - 129 - 128 (-1)

Jeff Jarrett - 130 - 131 ( +1)

Peter Avalon - 131 - 130 (-1)

Rush - 132 - 132 ( = )

Jay Lethal - 133 - 134 ( +1)

Griff Garrison - 134 - 136 ( +2)

Michael Nakazawa - 135 - 133 (-2)

Preston Vance - 136 - 135 (-1)

Shawn Dean - 137 - 138 ( +1)

Vincent - 138 - 137 (-1)

Sammy Guevara - 139 - 139 ( = )

Dralistico - 140 - 140 ( = )

Dutch - 141 - 141 ( = )

Madison Rayne - 142 - 142 ( = )

Josh Woods - 143 - 145 ( +2)

Chris Jericho - 144 - 143 (-1)

Tony Nese - 144 - 143 (-1)

Ariya Daivari - 146 - 146 ( = )

Satnam Singh - 147 - 149 ( +2)

Paul Wight - 148 - 147 (-1)

Aaron Solo - 149 - 148 (-1)

Anthony Ogogo - 150 - 150 ( = )

Miro - 151 - 151 ( = )

Saraya - 152 - 152 ( = )

Rebel - 153 - 153 ( = )

Serena Deeb - 154 - 154 ( = )

Kamille - 155 - 155 ( = )

Nick Comoroto - 156 - 156 ( = )

Presenting, from a cloudy Canadian Saturday:

TAGS OF THE WEEK

@wheeleryutagf for suggesting radical new treatments

@powderflower for going through it

@unseenbox for bonding Bryan and Kyle over brain damage

@corvidable for reminding us about Sissy Boy Slap Party

@sendhook for committing electoral fraud twice

@faggotmox for leaving a tag that's only funnier with the url attached

@sumeriandeathsquad for thinking of the children

@throesofincreasingwonder for dropping poetry in the notes

@dykecassidy for forgetting Colten

@sarahcakes613 for coming face to face with a terrifying ordeal

@chuckstaylors for bringing a voice to the voiceless

and @wrestledyke for not even worrying at all that the internet is forever :)

[gamergirljournalist]

Review: Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) - I actually enjoyed it

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Warning: this review contains spoilers for the 2023 Five Nights at Freddy's film

For those who have been living under a rock, Five Nights at Freddy's is a 2014 indie horror video game that went through development hell after a film adaptation was announced. After years of waiting, plus it being passed down from Warner Bros to Blumhouse, the movie is now showing in theatres and Peacock.

As of writing, the 2023 film adaptation of Five Nights At Freddy's has an average critic score of 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Regardless of what those film snobs say, I actually enjoyed this horror flick. Sure it has its flaws, but for a film adaptation, I think it did a pretty good job.

Warning, I will be spoiling the film and the games, so if you want to watch it blind, steer clear for now.

The film has a proper plot

This movie has a plot, like a real working plot. And no, it's not convoluted compared to the mess that's the franchise's lore. It's about a night security guard who's at risk of losing his sister. To prove that he could still have custody of her, he took on the job as the night guard for an abandoned Pizzaria from the 80's. Little did he know that this was no ordinary night shift gig.

What Blumhouse and Scott Cawthon have done to present this game in movie form was great. It took parts of the first two games, as well as sprinkling in aspects from later titles and the books, to create a cohesive story. The best way to watch this movie is to view it as its own thing. Because if you're going to watch this and find ways to connect the movie to the game's story, many things really don't make sense.

The cast

Five Nights at Freddy's has a tremendous cast. While most of the people featured were smaller actors who appeared in one minor role in TV shows or unknown films, Matthew Lillard and Josh Hutcherson did a tremendous job performing the franchise's iconic characters, William Afton and Mike Schmidt.

Mike has a personality, rather than just a boring character we play as in the first game. Meanwhile, we see William as this cunning character, who managed to fool so many people, to the point he had a different alias.

The children also did an amazing job, even if we rarely see them. They act all scary and not so innocent. Even Mike's sister, Abby (played by Piper Rubio) was shrouded in mystery. She's no ordinary kid, even if she does look like it. Why is she not like the other kids? What's with the drawings? So many questions that my first theory was that she was psychic.

Speaking of theories... MATPAT WAS IN IT!!!! That guy lied to everyone on the internet, only for it to be revealed that he had a minor cameo and said the line. And it's not just him. A few YouTubers were featured and Markiplier could have been in it if it wasn't for scheduling issues.

If there was one character I didn't like, it was Vanessa. Played by Elizabeth Lail, her job was to warn Mike about the dangers of the Pizzaria but wouldn't explain why due to "reasons" explained in the film's climax. The moment that happened, I was like "Okay, that checks out." Blumhouse's decision to implement a character that was introduced in Security Breach was an odd choice. I can somewhat see why it was made, however, its execution made it feel corny at most. 

My thoughts on the film

In all honesty, Five Nights At Freddy's isn't like other great video game adaptations, like HBO's The Last of Us or Illuminations' The Super Mario Bros. However, it's pretty clear that so much love and attention was given to this project. And to be fair, that's to be expected since it's a Blumhouse production.

While it is branded as a horror movie, it felt like I was watching M3GAN all over again. Lots of comedy and the push of the importance of family. Some paranormal stuff here and there, easter eggs from the original games, while also coming up with something original. And I think that's the problem with this film.

Unlike Super Mario Bros, which barely had any lore, Five Nights At Freddy's has a story that spans many of its titles, including children's activity books. If viewed as a standalone story, it's fine. But let's be real, those who will be watching this movie on opening weekend are Five Nights At Freddy's fans. The film did reference stuff from the original story, but many changes were made which had many, including me, reacting with "that wasn't in the games at all." I watched this picture with my boyfriend and he was like "Can you explain x" and I had to tell him "Sorry dude, that's an original thing. Didn't see it in the games."

Regardless, I did enjoy the final product and how it gave some tribute to the content creators that boosted the franchise's popularity. It's still a good film, just expect some head scratches and camp. I bet Matpat is working on something to connect the movie to the overall lore.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Dave

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 3, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Apr 04, 2025

Trump’s announcement last night that he was placing high tariffs on countries around the world came after the stock market closed, but it drove stock futures dramatically downward. Overseas, global markets also plunged. Today, before the stock market opened, Trump posted on his social media site: “THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Fittingly, it was former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who rang the bell opening the stock market today. Giuliani represented Newsmax, the right-wing media channel with ties to Trump. As soon as the market opened, stocks fell straight down. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 1,679 points, falling about 4%, its biggest fall since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in 2020. The S&P 500 fell 274 points, or 4.8%. The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 1,050 points, or almost 6%. The losses wiped out about $2 trillion.

Trump justified the tariffs by declaring that the U.S. is in the midst of a national emergency, but this afternoon he left the White House for a long weekend in Florida, where his private Doral resort outside of Miami is holding the first domestic golf tournament of the season of LIV Golf, which is financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Trump’s tariffs are not an economic policy. Tariffs are generally imposed on products, not on nations. By placing them on countries, the White House was able to arrive at its numbers with a nonsensical formula that appears to have been reached by asking AI how to impose tariffs—a suggestion so outlandish that I dismissed when I saw it last night, but economist Paul Krugman today identified it as being a likely possibility. CNBC’s Steve Liesman said: “Nobody ever heard of this formula. Nobody has ever used this formula. So I’m sorry, but the conclusion seems to be the president kind of made this up as he went along....”

Today, former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers posted: “It’s now clear that the [Trump] Administration computed reciprocal tariffs without using tariff data. This is to economics what creationism is to biology, astrology is to astronomy, or RFK thought is to vaccine science. The Trump tariff policy makes little sense EVEN if you believe in protectionist mercantilist economics.”

Editor of The American Prospect David Dayen notes that there is no apparent policy behind the tariffs, no thought, for example, as to whether it is even possible for the U.S. to ramp up the kind of domestic manufacturing Trump claims to want. While Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CBS, “You’re going to see employment leaping starting today,” in fact, both automaker Stellantis and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool announced layoffs because of the tariffs.

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo points out that building and establishing a new plant in the U.S. will take a minimum of three to five years even if investors are inclined to support one, but Victoria Guida reported in Politico that corporate executives are saying they cannot invest in manufacturing until they can project costs, and Trump is far too unpredictable to enable them to do that with any confidence.

Dayen writes that Trump’s tariffs are essentially sanctions on the rest of the world. His behavior is, Dayen says, “no different from a mob boss moving into town and sending his thugs to every business on Main Street, roughing up the proprietors and asking for protection money so they don’t get pushed out of business.” Dayen notes that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued last year for using the extraordinary power of the U.S. economy to force other countries to do as the U.S. wants, creating a U.S. sphere of influence through economic pressure.

Extending the comparison to a mob boss, Dayen notes that “protection money” could take many forms: “curbing migration, taking in more U.S. farm exports or weapons systems, reducing industrial capacity in China and forcing more consumption, buying long-dated U.S. debt on the cheap, siding with a war strategy against Iran, literally anything the White House wants.”

Trump’s son Eric appeared to confirm that the tariffs are a shakedown when he posted: “I wouldn’t want to be the last country that tries to negotiate a trade deal with [Trump]. The first to negotiate will win—the last will absolutely lose. I have seen this movie my entire life.…” Foreign affairs journalist David Rothkopf was more graphic: “These aren’t tariffs,” he wrote. “They are a horse’s head in the bed of (almost) every world government and business leader.” Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman suggested that if a government refused to negotiate with Trump, that country’s major companies should deal directly with Trump, exempting that company’s products from tariffs in exchange for a new factory or some other investment Trump wants.

Trump is overturning the past 80 years of global trade cooperation in order to concentrate power in his own hands. Congress began to take down the tariff walls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when it passed the 1934 Reciprocal Tariff Act enabling the president to lower the high tariff rates Republicans had established with the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff. That tariff had worsened the Great Depression. With the turn away from tariff walls and toward international cooperation, global trade has fostered international cooperation and created the rising prosperity of the twentieth century.

“The global economy is fundamentally different today than it was yesterday,” Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney said today. “The system of global trade anchored on the United States…is over. Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over. The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services is over. While this is a tragedy, it is also the new reality.”

Ending systems of global free trade dovetails with the idea of getting rid of the international rules-based order created after World War II. After that horrific war, world leaders decided to create a system of international institutions, like the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to provide ways in which countries could protect their sovereignty and work out their differences without going to war.

Trump’s threats against other countries, including Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, are a direct rejection of those principles. That rejection reinforces the Trump regime’s embrace of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, which invaded Ukraine first in 2014 and again in 2022 and is trying to justify grabbing Ukrainian territory. Under Trump, the U.S. is siding with Russia rather than Ukraine in this war in a stunning rejection of the institutions and principles that have stabilized the globe since World War II.

Putin is now threatening NATO countries, prompting them to prepare for defense. “We are not at war,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said recently, “but we are certainly not at peace either.”

Some of those advocating tariff walls and forcing our allies to maintain their own defense suggest that creating a U.S. sphere of influence is the best way to counter a rising China, but there is no doubt that the concept of such spheres caters to the worldview of Russian and Chinese leaders. As scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder points out, weakening the U.S. and its allies also benefits Russia by increasing Russia’s power relative to other countries, making it easier to establish the multipolar world Russia wants.

The Trump administration is also undermining post–World War II democracy at home. Last night, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) identified Trump’s tariffs as “a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.” Murphy pointed to Trump’s shakedown of prominent law firms, four of which he has attacked with executive orders. He also pointed to Trump’s attacks on universities, withholding government funding until their administrators bow to MAGA’s ideological demands.

Sarah D. Wire of USA Today reported that earlier this week the Institute for Museum and Library Studies was effectively closed, and over the past two days the administration told libraries across the country that grants awarded last year have been terminated. Today the administration cut federal grants for arts and humanities across the country: museums, archives, historic sites, educational projects, and so on—all defunded. It also cut this year’s funding for National History Day, a popular history program in schools that is already underway.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services slashed jobs and programs in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), even as measles continues to spread and two Louisiana infants have died of whooping cough. Today, news broke that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is implementing a hiring freeze even as flash floods and tornadoes just today have killed at least seven people in the Midwest to the mid-South.

The plan, as Vice President J.D. Vance explained in a 2021 interview, is to destroy the current government, business, educational, cultural, and scientific pillars of the United States in order to replace them with a new system, although there is tension between the Project 2025 wing of MAGA and the technocrats’ wing over whether that new system will be a theocracy or a technocracy. In either case, it will be an authoritarian government in which power and money concentrate in a very few hands.

The administration’s crusade against the state of Maine shows what this looks like. After Maine governor Janet Mills told Trump the state would follow state and federal law rather than bow to his demands, acting Social Security Administration commissioner Leland Dudek canceled contracts permitting Maine parents to apply for Social Security numbers for their newborns from the hospital and for Maine families to report deaths from funeral homes. Told such a change would risk identity theft and wasteful spending, Dudek told the agency to do it anyway in order to punish Mills.

After an outcry, Dudek backtracked, but yesterday the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced she was freezing federal funds for Maine educational programs. The Trump administration would stand against “a leftist social agenda,” Rollins wrote.

The problem for Republicans is that while the sort of inflammatory language Rollins used has been a staple of the party for decades, the MAGA agenda itself is not popular. Only about 4% of voters who knew about Project 2025 wanted to see it enacted, and billionaire Elon Musk, who runs the “Department of Government Efficiency” that is slashing through government programs, is so unpopular that his support for a candidate in Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election actually appeared to have hurt, rather than helped, that candidate.

Now party members have to deal with the fact their president has tanked the economy by enacting what the National Review says is likely the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history. Now countries around the globe are imposing reciprocal tariffs on the U.S. while also negotiating their own trade agreements that cut out the U.S. Those agreements are not only for products like soybeans, but also for weapons, a development the administration is protesting.

Republican members of Congress could stop Trump at any time. In the case of tariffs, they could simply reassert their constitutional power to manage tariffs. If they choose not to and the economy doesn’t recover and thrive as Trump keeps promising, voters can be expected to hold them, as well as him, to account.

Right now Republican leaders appear to be hoping that Trump’s attempt to extort other countries will work and the tariffs will be short lived. But their enthusiasm for that strategy seems to be well under control.

Today, Bill Ackman resorted to defending the tariffs by posting: “Sometimes the best strategy in a negotiation is convincing the other side you are crazy.”

—

Notes:

Paul Krugman

Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy?

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON