Not a mere device.

I don't believe that they are - it's just not weird to me that in a country that has more guns than people and with an extremely unpopular president who keeps doing evil shit, that there'd be a few one-in-several-million people who make and carry out some half-baked plans.

I know the last few years have felt like an eternity, but a guy in the audience did die at the 2024 attempt in Butler, PA, and two other people were shot and seriously injured. That's very much a thing that did happen. There were articles about it at the time, even, because Trump was characteristically self-centered about it and didn't really acknowledge anyone but himself.

US presidents have a lot of security, and they keep getting stopped by security.

Doing political assassinations is actually pretty hard? Famously a BUNCH of shit went wrong with the plot to assassinate Franz Ferdinand that kicked off WW1, and they very nearly failed at it.

There was a guy who had a plan to assassinate Biden during the 2024 debate but he showed up at the wrong place, fucked around for a few hours, realized he had the wrong place and was too late, and went back to his hotel room - and then got arrested. It just wasn't as big of a news story.

straw animals design (etsy store) plushies and accessories, including some knitted patterns. beginner friendly!

green frog crochet (website store). mostly doll patterns, very pretty and totally worth the time and effort. they also sell full kits for some of the patterns, that include all supplies except for crochet hooks and fiberfill. also, youtube channel with tutorials.

moonlight crochet (etsy store). mostly doll patterns, lots of clothes you can adapt to dolls of similar sizes

yan schenkel (website store for individual patterns) has several books out that i really love. it took a bit of digging to figure out if this online store selling the pdf versions is legit and i found that the publisher sells directly through them. there are three pattern books (1, 2, 3) with animal plushies.

natura crochet (website store) has colorful animal and holiday themed patterns, plus two books of aquatic themed patterns. same publisher/seller as above.

hanichan (website store) has a distinct and minimalist style that i think is very beginner friendly. there are also useful general tutorials for amigurumi.

aquariwool crochet (etsy store). a lot of colorful and fun animal patterns. i haven't bought anything from them yet but i have a few saved and honestly just looking through the patterns makes me happy.

make me roar (website store). one of the more unique styles i've seen out there, especially these.

jo handmade design (etsy store). both plushies and more realistic toys, the patterns are very well written and illustrated.

The founder of GoImagine refuses to go public or sell the platform: NO SHARE HOLDERS TO APPEASE!!

They have a STRICT vetting process for sellers: NO BOTS, NO AI, NO DROP SHIPPING, HAND MADE CRAFTS ONLY!!

You can narrow down stores you're shopping from by STATE! EASILY SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES!!

2% of every sale transaction is donated to charity!!!

This is baked into the platform. Right now they're partnered with four different charities to fight childhood hunger, provide relief childcare for families dealing with domestic violence, end childhood homelessness, and fund art accessablity. HELPING KIDS!!!!

I have a shop there that I will be stocking soon! If you're a creator, their basic ship front is FREE and you get 12 listing slots! The next size up is only $5 a month and you get 200 listings, and the topn you're at $15 gives you 1,000 product listings and a whole ass customizable store front website. That's cheaper than anything else on the market rn.

Current downsides that will not remain downsides: they're only available in the USA but they're planning on expanding into Canada soon. And they've been mostly focused on growing their seller side, so not a lot of buyers know about them yet. But!!! That why I tell everyone I can! Shop with them! List your products with them! Use a platform that has a dedicated mission for community good and is there to support sustainable creator markets, not create endless bloated corporate growth!!!!

this is like the winchesters punching bees, do you understand? suggesting a jaeger can "win" a fight against a hurricane makes as much sense as suggesting we nuke them. it's so fucking stupid!

And I am a butternut hater so I sub sweet potato in this delicious fatteh salad from The Arabesque Table:

Trans rights are being attacked, public transport has been defunded, tax cuts issued for the wealthy, they've mass-defunded public services, cut and attacked the disability funding model, cut benefits, diverted transport funding to roads, cut all recent public transport subsidies, cancelled massive important infrastructure projects like damns and ferries (we are three ISLANDS), fast tracked mining, oil, and other massive environmentally detrimental projects and gave the power the to approve these projects singularly to three ministers who have been wined and dined by lobbyists of the companies that have put the bids in to approve them while one of the main minister infers he will not prioritise the protection of endangered species like the archeys frog over mining projects that do massive environmental harm. They have attacked indigenous rights in an attempt to negate the Treaty of Waitangi by “redefining it”; as a backup, they are also trying to remove all mentions of the treaty from legislation starting with our Child Protection laws no longer requiring social workers to consider the importance of Maori children’s culture when placing those children; when the Waitangi Tribunal who oversees indigenous matters sought to enquire about this, the Minister for Children blocked their enquiry in a breach of comity that was condemned in a ruling — too late to do anything — by our Supreme Court. They have repealed labour protections around pay and 90 day trials, reversed our smoking ban, cancelled our EV subsidy, cancelled our water infrastructure scheme that would have given Maori iwi a say in water asset management, cancelled our biggest city’s fuel tax, made our treasury and inland revenue departments less accountable, dispensed of our Productivity Commission, begun work on charter schools and military boot camps in an obvious push towards privatisation, cancelled grants for first home buyers, reduced access to emergency housing, allowed no cause evictions, cancelled our Maori health system that would have given Maori control over their own public medical care and funding, cut funding of services like budgeting advice and food banks, cancelled the consumer advocacy council, cancelled our medicine regulations, repealed free prescriptions, deferred multiple hospital builds, failed to deliver on pre-election medical promises, reversed a gun ban created in response to the mosque shootings, brought back three strikes = life sentence policy, increased minimum wage by half the recommended amount, cancelled fair pay for disabled workers, reduced wheelchair services, reversed our oil and gas exploration ban, cancelled our climate emergency fund, cut science research funding including climate research, removed limits on killing sea lions, cut funding for the climate change commission, weakened our methane targets, cancelled Significant National Areas protections, have begun reversing our ban on live exports. Much of this was passed under urgency.

(IM RIGHT AND I SHOULD SAY IT)

Kurosawa and Mifune were one of the greatest director/actor partnerships in history. They made some of the most influential movies in film history together! You literally already know his work - Star Wars famously ripped off Hidden Fortress, The Magnificent Seven was a straight up Seven Samurai remake, you would recognize Yojimbo itself in A Fistfull of Dollars.

vs.

Robot: horror at the lie of your mind and your humanity itself (have you ever actually had a thought of your own, or is everything you are/you think/you understand just created by another person’s brain? whose mind/brain are you?? whose thoughts are in your head?? What does it mean to “think” when you’re only a manmade echo of humanity constructed from Boolean logic loops? Do you even have a soul?)