Tracking toy tariffs

TheSameIdiot said:
My first thought when I read this was small action figure companies. If your name isn't Mattel or Hasbro, I think you're in trouble.
https://bsky.app/profile/mims.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lmcfnva6ss2o

All of these AI companies need to be sued into the ground. It's copyright infringement at best.
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I'm technically included in not one but TWO class action lawsuits, but I suspect what'll happen is they'll settle, the big five publishers will get the lion's share, and little d-list authors like me will get a check that's only worth cashing out of spite. There's literally no fine or financial hit they could throw at Meta, Google, Microsoft (Ohhhhhh don't get me started with them, I worked with a guy who had an inside angle when OpenAI started up who told me "I've seen zero evidence from people I'd ordinarily trust that they're not pillaging everyone else's IP to build this thing so I won't touch it with someone else's d*ck"), or Apple that they'd even feel.

And honestly for me at this point it's beyond the money. It's an existential crisis. My voice and thousands of others' voices were stolen to build the cursed things and we'll never get that back. Can't get the egg out of the batter.

And to your first point: I worry we'll see price increases from Hasbro and Mattel... I'm worried this buries guys like Spero or even NECA or Four Horsemen.
 
On the AI-front, last Friday I took a friend out for coffee to thank her for the cover letter she rewrote for me for a dream job. She really made it sound professional and fantastic and that cover letter was getting me in the mix.

She told me she asked AI to rewrite it.

I was simultaneously so mad that she did that without my consent and so glad I didn't know until after it was submitted. Not that my original letter was bad at all and I had already added "myself" back into it. But she fed me to a lion.

She's a great person, but "creative" is not the first word I'd use to describe her. And those are the people I see most embracing AI stuff - they can't do it themselves, so they are more than happy to get close with AI. Except for my best friend who is a writer and has fed his entire life into AI and is now in an existential crisis (to put it mildly). So are we in a mostly "those who can't do, do it with AI" scenario?
 
I walk a fine line with this because I don’t want to be ableist, but I would be utterly mortified and absolutely furious if I found my work had been touched by AI in any way. Rise or fall, I will be held to account by my own means, not outside means. No difference for me personally between AI and outright plagerism. Many years ago when I was singing in rock bands, I refused to let them use reverb on my voice, for the same reason. Love me or hate me, but love ME or hate ME.
 
Count me as another person annoyed with the use of AI atm. I make 3D renders and comics on the side to pay for my toy hobby and "other vices", and now that I am making enough to pay for that and more, I'm seeing my renders thrown through img2img filters and put up for sale by users on DeviantArt. It's very small-scale compared to the overall large issue, but it's still frustrating.
 
My super-old laptop is gonna need to be replaced before October when Windows 10 support goes away. So I suppose that's another expense I should push up to ... pretty much right now before the tariffs fleece me even harder.
 
My laptop crashed on me a few weeks ago and I was thankfully able to repair it. My phone is old so I ordered a new one over the weekend before those prices go nuts. Computers, cell phones, cars, are all things you're not going to want to have to replace in short order.
 
Schizm said:
More of the same. The sweeping generalizations help this situation not at all except making you feel superior. It's the power over others convo writ small.
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Honestly, I think that's a bit of a fence-sitting cop-out. The suggestion of anyone being morally opposed to someone else just to make themselves 'feel superior' is silly. I can feel superior to any number of people without having to point out that they're deeply uneducated, credulous loons. Feeling superior to other people has never been a motive for me to do or say anything because I genuinely don't care about being superior to others.

I'm interested in truth and not hiding behind platitudes like 'live and let live' that are utterly worthless and we all kind of know it. And it's no different when people suggest the 'hear out the other side' stuff. To give you a very current example; The Trump administration has admitted that it made a mistake and fucking black-bagged a completely innocent man, who also had a current protective order to not be deported, and shipped him off to a gang prison in another country.
And the Supreme Court just allowed it to remain that way.

And Trump voters are celebrating. Again, the administration -admitted- this was a mistake and he should not have been sent away and imprisoned. But he is. And the United States is not going to fix their mistake. They're going to leave an innocent man in a torture prison in another country where they sent him... just 'cause.

Explain to me, in very simple terms, what my middle ground with these people is supposed to be. Trump voters are supporting, and indeed amplifying, Trump's ideas about deporting American citizens that he doesn't like. If someone wants to execute a puppy every Thursday, and I don't want to execute any puppies at all -- where is the middle ground we're supposed to meet on? Execute one puppy a month?

It's intellectually dishonest to pretend we're 'demonizing' people that are actively engaging in evil behaviour and rhetoric every single day. People that would gladly have me killed if they could get away with it. This guy ran for president while quoting Hitler, dude. He's fucking evil. And so are the people that voted for him and supported him. Those that aren't evil are incredibly stupid and credulous. Because they can't be anything but one or the other. Give me one other reason someone would openly support a racist sex offender?

Let me also be clear about something; I'm not naive or under-informed on this subject. I was raised in Boston, but I lived my early teenage years in bible belt northern Florida; as a Goth atheist. I've argued and debated with religious people since I was 13 years old. I was debating religion and politics since the first chatrooms were created. I still, to this day, debate politics/religion in person and online REGULARLY (and watch the same pretty often - from the likes of Hitchens to the new guys like Alex O'Connor). I'm not spitting on the idea of 'just talk to the other side' because I've never tried it and just don't wanna.
I've done it. I've done it for 30 years.

It doesn't work. Not on a large enough scale to matter to us here and now while a wannabe King is destroying my country, tearing apart all of its foundations, and disappearing people without due process right in front of us all, on camera, without consequence and with the adoration and cheering of his base.



Also, lol.... 104% tariffs on China now. I think all of these countries just need to go hard and out-crazy the senile dementia patient president. China should respond with 10,000% tariffs on the U.S. Like, if we're going to just be absolutely fucking crazy and stupid with these numbers, let's have some fun with it and see how crazy we can get.
 
Yeah. I’d like someone to explain to me, real slow, like I’m a caveman, how one finds “common ground” with folks who think certain demographics should have fewer/no rights, or that certain groups are OK to displace/annihilate, or that certain religious/cultural practices should be subservient to other religious/cultural practices.

Do we, like, let them have a little oppression as a treat? Like a brokered genocide? Christofascism Lite? I Can’t Believe It’s Not Oligarchy?

Seriously: where is the viable compromise here that is not being complicit with or appeasing of actual Nazis? And how could such a compromise possibly be reached in good faith with a movement based on mockery, scorn and derision of others AS IT’S ATTRACTIVE FEATURES?

Do you just give the bully SOME of your lunch money? Do you REALLY think he won’t come back for more, each and every day?
When does it stop? When do YOU stop it?
 
Exactly, Ace.

But I want to also be clear about something so it doesn't seem like I'm picking on Schizm here. I think the idea of talking to people you disagree with and finding common ground is important, noble, kind, and worthwhile. It takes a patient person that truly wants the best for everyone to be able to sit down and talk to people they don't agree with and listen to opinions they genuinely and strongly dislike.

I just don't believe that this is a matter of 'just different opinions.' If Schizm were suggesting we just talk it out with people that want to invest more tax money into bridges instead of schools -- sure, yeah. If it was about what percentage of the budget should be military vs. infrastructure? I'd be pretty fucking HOT on that topic for sure - but I'm not going to call someone evil for disagreeing with me there. But we're not talking about those kinds of disagreements, are we? We're talking about whether certain people can be denied fundamental human rights, whether our Constitution applies to everyone, and whether a president can act with absolute authority and against the direct orders of the Judicial and Legislative branches. These aren't matters of taste and opinion we can casually talk over and come to agreements about if we don't -already- agree.

And if you (the Imperial You) think I'm wrong and are honestly acting in good faith, I invite you to go to a Trump rally and try to calmly and gently have these conversations. See what you get.
 
Yup, yup and yup, Damien.

And honestly I absolutely appreciate where Schizm’s heart is here, and I suspect it comes from having to navigate a personal sphere that has a lot of MAGA in it.
I certainly know that I am privileged to be in a place, literally and metaphorically, where I *can* cut all MAGA cultists out of my personal life: others may not be so fortunate.

I *wish* we could find common ground. I don’t think any good-hearted person WANTS to have enemies, WANTS to see others as twisted and foolish and cowardly and easily led. If I had the Infinity Stones, I wouldn’t want to *snap* MAGA away, I’d want to use that power to heal them.

But no one has that kind of power, and if someone did they’d just misuse it to slaughter their supposed enemies. That’s precisely why we are in this mess. And we can’t just “kindness” it all away. I fucking wish we could.
 
Definitely. To put a finer point on it - my dad is MAGA. Not like... storm the Capitol, MAGA. But he's a big fan of Trump - loves everything he does with the occasional 'Oooh, don't really agree with that but he must know what he's doing.' That kinda stuff. He's not a flat-earther, but he is SEMI anti-vax. My dad isn't an evil man.

My dad is, however, stupid. Dumb as fuck. He learned to read when he was 25. He is not educated by any definition of that word beyond 'can do basic math and read well enough to get by.' He is not well-read. He doesn't consume media from multiple outlets and never learned higher critical thinking skills or how to interpret information. He is the definition of dumb and credulous. He believes what Fox News tells him. When Trump gets up and says inane bullshit, my dad believes him. Because why would Trump lie about thousands of rapists crossing our southern border? And I mean.. my dad doesn't hate brown people, but he never really LIKED them either, right? Sounds legit to him.

It doesn't come from a place of hate. But the result of the way my dad thinks, believes, and votes, is hate. And I've told him so.

I've had HOURS-long conversations with my father about what is going on in the world and the paths forward we can take. I've listened to his concerns, gently corrected factual errors and provided him with where he can find more accurate information to support what I'm telling him. He's listened and had positive feedback as I talked. His own granddaughter is LGBTQ after all. He loves her. He'd never endanger her or vote for someone that hates her, right?
And just as importantly, my father does and has always recognized that I am orders of fucking magnitude more intelligent than he is. It isn't up for dispute. He's the one that says it. He talks to me because he knows I am much, much smarter than he is and more plugged in to all this stuff and that I do my research and take time to understand all this stuff.

And he still voted for Trump. Three times.*


This shit isn't fixable with a conversation. I wish it were.

*I presume. The last time we spoke was just before the election and I told him that, this time, if he can't put the people he loves before Trump that I didn't want him to call me anymore and the kids (my kids) would never speak to him again. Their choice not mine. Haven't heard from him since.
 
I imagine our resident economists can explain this better than I can. This is the U.S. 10-year yield. This is very bad.

https://bsky.app/profile/karl-schamotta.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lmdse26ii22d

This is at least the second time in my life that a Republican president has put us at risk of destroying the global financial system.

There have been three Republican administrations in the last 30 years (including Trump 2) and all of them have been catastrophic. Iraq War, financial crisis, pandemic mismanagement, financial crisis, tariffs, financial crisis. Part of me wonders how Republicans win elections anymore. Then I remember they have a full-scale propaganda network at their fingertips.
 
Damien said:
Definitely. To put a finer point on it - my dad is MAGA. Not like... storm the Capitol, MAGA. But he's a big fan of Trump - loves everything he does with the occasional 'Oooh, don't really agree with that but he must know what he's doing.' That kinda stuff. He's not a flat-earther, but he is SEMI anti-vax. My dad isn't an evil man.

My dad is, however, stupid. Dumb as fuck. He learned to read when he was 25. He is not educated by any definition of that word beyond 'can do basic math and read well enough to get by.' He is not well-read. He doesn't consume media from multiple outlets and never learned higher critical thinking skills or how to interpret information. He is the definition of dumb and credulous. He believes what Fox News tells him. When Trump gets up and says inane bullshit, my dad believes him. Because why would Trump lie about thousands of rapists crossing our southern border? And I mean.. my dad doesn't hate brown people, but he never really LIKED them either, right? Sounds legit to him.

It doesn't come from a place of hate. But the result of the way my dad thinks, believes, and votes, is hate. And I've told him so.

I've had HOURS-long conversations with my father about what is going on in the world and the paths forward we can take. I've listened to his concerns, gently corrected factual errors and provided him with where he can find more accurate information to support what I'm telling him. He's listened and had positive feedback as I talked. His own granddaughter is LGBTQ after all. He loves her. He'd never endanger her or vote for someone that hates her, right?
And just as importantly, my father does and has always recognized that I am orders of fucking magnitude more intelligent than he is. It isn't up for dispute. He's the one that says it. He talks to me because he knows I am much, much smarter than he is and more plugged in to all this stuff and that I do my research and take time to understand all this stuff.

And he still voted for Trump. Three times.*


This shit isn't fixable with a conversation. I wish it were.

*I presume. The last time we spoke was just before the election and I told him that, this time, if he can't put the people he loves before Trump that I didn't want him to call me anymore and the kids (my kids) would never speak to him again. Their choice not mine. Haven't heard from him since.
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Your dad sounds a lot like my friend who was my Best Man for my wedding.

We met in university and we have/had a lot in common, but over the past decade+ (since he had kids) he has become even more conservative. We have had many arguments (because both of us can easily get heated about a topic) and we usually just go our separate ways after the fact thinking each is right. It really never affected our friendship because we have gone through a lot over the decades and been there for each other in dark times. Even today if something happens we don't let anything else get in the way of being there for each other.

However more and more I find I can't really talk with him anymore because of our differing views. He has become more and more strident about current events that I just can't meet him on common ground as much anymore. With Israel he is much like Trump where he is basically fine with whatever happens to the Palestinians (my friend is a non-practicing Jew). With Trump he is basically on board with everything he has been doing and sounds a lot like MAGA supporters in that it needs to happen and it will all work out. He even said to me he will buy more American products now as a sort of middle finger to the rest of Canada. Oh sorry, yeah we are Canadian.

It is sort of difficult to be understanding, or try and meet him halfway, when he continues to spout off the same MAGA rhetoric you can see everyday. What's worse is that he seems to be happy to keep supporting Trump et al while they are trying to sabotage Canada for no clear reason.

That makes it really hard to find a way forward together, and that is probably the same situation for you guys in the US.
 
104% tariffs. I bought a laptop yesterday, trying to think if there's anything else I'd better stock up on before the economic bomb hits. I guess I can say goodbye to my three favorite lines going right now: Fury Toys TMNT, JoyToy TMNT, and Hiya Godzilla.
 
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