#uspol tw

[tafkarfanfic]

Hey Americans! If you buy things from overseas, as of August 22 you probably don’t anymore.

Most foreign postal services have paused shipping of packages under $800 to the USA. You will hear that it’s “because of tariffs,” but that’s not exactly true.

It’s because the US:

Has not given anyone a way to pay those tariffs and

Has not been clear on what will ACTUALLY have to be paid. (The country’s tariff has been floated, but a US$80 flat fee has also been floated.

Many countries require people to pay tariffs when they receive a package. That’s fine. But you have to give people a way to pay the damn tariff. And there isn’t a way to do so. Apparently there isn’t even a PLAN for a way to do so.

So: if you have been buying from Etsy or eBay or a little shop overseas, if you subscribe to a foreign magazine, if you are an immigrant and you buy food from home via mail, now you will need to fly there and bring it home. Of course, the people who can afford that are also the ones responsible for this dumb policy.

[squidhominid]

So the National Park Service removed any mention of trans people from the page on the Stonewall National Monument. And removed the word 'transgender' from the page on Sylvia Rivera.

Hell no. Trans women of color built the gay rights movement. Full stop.

Check my Mastodon for a version of this at 300 DPI printable resolution! Take copies to a Stonewall protest and hand them out, if you're going to one!

[stargildedskies]

conservatives: “Bad bunny isn't ‘American’!!! We are throwing a fit because we want white people who speak only English in the halftime show :(”

The world’s cuntiest monkey’s paw, curling its middle finger:

[hope-for-the-planet]

Trump Is Cementing the Green Energy Transition He Loathes - Bloomberg

From the article:

The dynamic of states working to limit the leverage of foreign powers and preserve their own freedom of action, however, ultimately favors electricity taking market share in end uses of energy at the expense of fossil fuels, thereby widening the opportunity set for cleaner sources. The end result of Trump’s dominance-plus-deglobalization agenda is a pathway, imperfect as it is, toward decarbonization [...]

This is an opinion piece, but it echoes a sentiment I've thought myself and frequently seen expressed elsewhere. One of the (many) benefits of renewable energy is that you don't need local fossil fuel resources to generate it within your own country. If you aren't importing most of your energy in the form of fossil fuels, you aren't as dependent on other countries or subject to price swings or shortages due to geopolitical instability.

Trump's clear intent to use US resources (including fossil fuels) to bully other countries is only making renewable energy investment look like a better and better political idea.

[ellewantsrevenge]

“ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”

so much for stopping violent criminals

[cluster-a-disorder-enjoyer]

Life tip: never live your life in such a way that people celebrate your death

[dgalerab]

drives me crazy how people don't even seem to be able to put themselves in middle eastern people's shoes. "ummmm just remember that iran's govt is oppressive and dictatorial" ok putting aside the history of us interventionism that contributed to that, imagine every time you complained seriously about the us govt someone bombed the shit out of a school in chicago.

[humanconditionpoetry]

Where Does Kindness Lie:

They always told you to "Do Kind".

They always say to "Be Kind".

They are going to say "Be Kind to One Another".

But, They did not taught....

How? or Even Why?

Beyond the Mortal and Virtue to Signify.

The Quarantine of Empathy, on the Down Low.

Most Billionaires unemployed in their show.

Only to Save Them, from the Death of the Dime.

Leaking False Rhymes to the Masses that,

Eat them Up and Descend the Climb.

Ballooning in all of our Ego.

Institutions Regal....

With this....

I, Yearn for the day where kindness... Is more than just a fluctuated point system, A Tic for Tact, A Proprietary. A Settling of Scores. I, Yearn for kindness.... To go back, To saving us from our own bottomless pit. Where teeth show - not to be bitten. Please, I beg.... Lend a Hand - without strings. An Ear - without judgement. A Voice - without an insult. And a Soul - without dimming. And Expect nothing in Return. Thus begins.... The Commencement to Heal the Burn.

HumanConditionPoetry © Feb 2nd 2026

Author Note: The Title of This Poem is a Double Meaning 😉.

Think and Comment:

What part of the poem can you do in your life now?

How to keep kindness alive in age and in an era where forgetting each other and ourselves is the narrative being pushed?