Got the parts to fix my air conditioner in my car, and a used phone, and a retro handheld I had been putting off.
All used, of course. I’m not contributing back to this corrupt hell government.
Miller trailblazer 330. I scrounged and worked ot like a mad man to buy it before this bs started cause paying an extra 3-4k just because. Well fuck that.
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Yup. I’ve been busy, oh you know, managing having fucking cancer and having necessary surgeries.
I only fucking wish I had money to spend to rebuild my life before it all goes to shit.
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Not previous poster; I felt smart a couple days ago buying a few smaller appliances and airbrush parts ahead of the tariffs, then the pharmaceutical ones were announced and it’s like “oh cool, so my chronic health condition will just bankrupt me now instead”
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I see now my comment had a typo: it should have read not previous poster at the start. No, more I felt like I might be “getting ahead” of the tariffs a bit by prepping some and now that preparation is more than wiped out if these pharmaceutical ones happen
For the record: I happen to care about everyone being impacted negatively by the tariffs, up to and including the hapless fuckwits that voted for it. If that still reads like being selfish, I think you’re trying to read it that way
Coffee.
Upgrade my nas to ssd.
I built a gaming PC back in January for this purpose, unfortunately GPUs are impossible to get so I’m stuck in a 2080 TI (which is showing its age). Tempted to pay ebay scalper prices ($300+ above MSRP for a 9070 XT), beats paying tariffs and prevents that extra money going to fund whatever new atrocities my government intends to commit.
Also got a nice motorized sausage stuffer.
I have a 3080 and usually play on a patient gamer schedule so I don’t really need to update yet, but I sort of wish I had now. I feel like my current build is going to have to last me for a lot longer than anticipated. But that’s ok, it’s probably better for my bank account to hoard the money I have anyway.
I built at a good time, micro center had the 9800x3d in stock at MSRP 😁 i should be good for 5+ years from now
Also i was upgrading from a ryzen 7 3800X (predating the x3d line) and to 100% NVME storage (4tb gaming drive and a 1tb boot drive)
Just having it in stock seems like a miracle from everything I’ve seen for a while. I may be moving to Europe late this year or next year and my income will be dropping to about half (with a generally much lower COL, but PC parts look to be about comparable to the US at the moment) so I’m guessing I may be able to find the parts but affording them will be a different matter.
your industry in tech? it seems only tech and phd level scientist are able to move there as a viable alternative.
What games are you playing where it’s showing its age? I’m using a 2070 super personally. With a variable refresh rate monitor I hardly notice slowdown unless it’s below 30fps, or if it’s spiking.
I also play old games. My recent ones (past year) have been Fallout New Vegas, Stardew Valley, Watch Dogs, Watch Dogs 2, Sonic Unleashed Recompiled, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Its not the games so much as the resolution; I’m at 4K, watchdogs 2 struggles and i had to drop settings a bit to maintain 50+ fps.
Esir: also i want to play Avowed at 60 FPS. Love the universe and played both Pillars of Eternity games, enjoyed the tutorial island of Avowed, just wanna enjoy buttery smooth combat.
I’m still running my 1080 (non-TI), I’ve wanted to upgrade since the 30x0 series but couldn’t justify the cost… Definitely not gonna get any better.
Might upgrade to a Pixel 8 from my current Pixel 6. I want to get security updates until at least the end of this administration.
We got a refrigerator. Needed one anyway but rushed it a couple months back because I saw the writing on the wall.
I just panic bought a new phone, after realizing mine probably won’t make it a year.
Same.
Sadly, I have no way to import a KMR L–02 Orca OR, since the ATF makes it such a pain in the ass to import onsey-twosey, and the tariffs mean that if they ever get a US distributor, it’s going to be out of my price range.
But I did get a CZ Shadow 2 Compact a week ago, and that’s going to be my carry and competition gun for however long these tariffs last.
I’m going to have to get a few pounds of powder, primers, and a few thousand bullets (the projectile part), because all of that is going in increase in costs, too. I was quoted a price of $315 or so for 8# of Vihtavouri N-135 powder; I’ll probably try to get 16-24#, 15,000 small rifle primers, and at least 8-12# of Ramshot Silhouette powder. About half of the raw materials to make bullets–lead, copper, brass, nitrocellulose, etc.–end up being imported, because we simply can’t keep up or don’t have the mines.
Vihtavuori, lol.
Czech here, also own the CZ Shadow 2 (full size), it is such a pleasure to shoot.
I kind of already did that all that stuff. During the pandemic I saw the writing on the wall: the united states is doomed to fail unless we get major reforms that are never going to happen.
I bought a cheap lathe. I then built a furnace and a burner. I then built an end mill out of scrap metal which I then used to build a forced air intake burner so I can melt stuff with less fuel. I’ve researched and experimented with electronics to the point I can build just about anything. Electric motors, computer logic, you name it. It helps that I have a computer engineering degree anyway. I found a decent way to produce my own double layer circuit boards which is going to pay off now that custom pcb services will become 100% unattainable by normal people. Right now I’m engineering a way to build a brushless motor controller, completely out of trash without buying anything of course.
I’ve learned how to make my own lead acid battery plates. I’ve figured out enough chemistry on my own to make all the bases and acids in at least some capacity out of stuff I can acquire for either free or really cheap.
I still have a lot to learn and a lot to do but i’m far enough along I can continue doing that no matter how much worse and more expensive society becomes.
I’m ready for the bitter fucking end of modernity. I’m not living like people did in the 1600s, period. And I definitely won’t be helping people who supported things I oppose.
I can’t help but imagine a scenario where someone can Minecraft together a computer starting from punching trees; but then they starve because they never learned how to farm.
It’s a funny scenario to think about, but the skill would be so in demand someone with it could not touch a farming tool the rest of their life and still eat good
Nothing, I’m not buying anything special from that country they can fuck off.
Slowly but surely we will move all our ongoing needs away from the USA and back within the EU fully, so that they can burn in their own little corner of the dark ages as they desire, while we continue to live in present day.
It’s one thing to say Fuck the US. It’s another to say fuck Americans.
I’m American and I’ll say both. They(we) let it happen, and our cowardice and inaction right this second just continues it. We had millions of protesters over the weekend. Did anyone listen? Nope. Until we take it back by force, nothing will change and the majority isn’t willing, so, we’re just gonna take it. Every second of inaction is willingness on our part. It can always get worse and does, yet we do nothing.
We deserve it. Maybe it will finally wake us the fuck up, if it doesn’t destroy us first.
We had millions of protesters over the weekend. Did anyone listen? Nope.
What’s supposed to happen from protests? Let’s say that you have a representative who was just elected or reelected and they’re fully aligned with the current administration’s policies. They don’t need votes or your support. Of what use will protests have?
Rallying our forces. Protests are where people get connected with organizations whose focus is to bring the working class into cohesive groups that are empowered through collective struggle to win better conditions. A protest makes it visible to everyone at the protest and all the regular working people who witness it, what they believe in as a collective and that none of them are anywhere near alone in feeling that way. They make it clear, both to the protesters and to the ruling class, how much strength there is in numbers and how deeply connected we are. It is a show of our forces and; even though I agree that protest is severely neutered under our current state of policing; when done correctly, it can still be a display of the numbers that we are willing and able to mobilize and even use to disrupt the system when doing so is strategically advantageous and agreed upon by the movement.
Of course, the ones done correctly are generally the ones that don’t get any media attention, if not deeply negative attention, precisely for all the reasons I stated. It is against the interests of the wealthy and ruling class for those to be viewed positively and widely publicized.
Oh, the reaction to these protests also makes it blindingly apparent where the loyalties of the ruling class lie, which is bound to wake a few people up along the way.
If nobody ever mobilizes, you quickly see people start to go doomer, believing nobody cares and there’s no possible way out of the situation because this is what we “chose”. This is a “democracy”, and this is what democracy gave us, so it must be correct. It’s much easier to gaslight the masses and normalize what is happening if they never see resistance to the popular narratives put up by powerful monied interests.
Excellent answer. I fall into the category of your last paragraph. I feel like I’m in a country not my own and if this is what the populace wants, maybe I’m in the wrong place.
This actually connects a few things for me that I’ve been thinking about lately. I believe that the current “ruling” class has figured out, among other things, that it is easy to disrupt a collective action problem while somehow also solving it for their own groups. If you look at the people in the cabinet and other supporters, they’d all be fighting each other, but are somehow united under one man.
If I understand your post correctly, organizing to protest puts like minded people together to further organize into groups that can unite to solve common problems even if their personal problems differ. For example, if I’m out to support trans youth and I meet up with someone to support women’s reproductive rights, we both have a common vested interest in changing the current political climate even if I’m also a gun owner.
The people that are going to suffer the most are the ones that don’t deserve it. It will be the gay kids in the south who are sent to conversion therapy and are physically abused to “fix” them. It will be the black buisness owner who is forced to hire more white people so it isn’t “dei”. It will be a sweet grandma that starves to death because she can’t afford food anymore.
Your examples are tame. There are already prison camps in El Salvador, house raids, disappearances, death of the rule of law…
This is actual fascism playbook™ stuff.
I ordered a Powkiddy RGB30, although I’m not really sure how the tariffs will impact this since it’s coming from China (I bought it before the 104%)
Tariffs are charged on arrival to the US. So I think you’ll be hit.
I don’t plan on making any last minute purchases at this point.
The tariffs (and other recent economic decisions) are purposefully inflicted economic chaos and disruption. I am not smart enough and do not have enough inside information to make truly informed decisions. I do not trust my ability (or really anybody else’s ability) to make long term, last minute plans around the deranged actions. Most, if not all, good plans should have / would have been executed a while ago anyway.
It doesn’t make sense to me to go ahead and buy stuff like a laptop, cellphone, car, etc right now “just in case”, spending lots of money I might not need to spend and which could be put to better use later. And for less expensive necessities, I already stock up on that sort of stuff as much as I can afford to buy and store because I live in a disaster prone, rural area so it’s always been a reasonable and rational thing to do for folks that have the means.
My plan, which began pretty much as soon as the election results were clear, was and is to make do with less. I’ve put off all non-essential “big” purchases I was considering. I’ve given up or significantly reduced luxury and impulse purchases. I’ve switched to less expensive brands, even if I like them less. I’ve switched to cheaper alternatives where applicable. And now I will buckle down, encourage and support others to do the same as best they can.
Bought a few months’ worth of coffee.
I love coffee. I didn’t start drinking it until I was 22.
i dint start drinking til like 2 years ago,
Guns
A Japanese car. My old car had been steadily falling apart for the past year. Finally made the leap last week.
What if - hear me out - Trump is gonna hold world by the balls, waving tariffs, and then canceling them. It is not only gonna boost spending, but also put more money in the billionaires pockets.
Wait, that’s not right either!
The first half, sure.
- Why talk or negotiate with someone when you can start with a shakedown?
- why let someone talk to you as if they were your equal, when you can start by threatening them, to ensure proper respect/obsequiousness?
I really don’t see how Trump has any plan beyond that, any ability to make deals beyond shakedowns
