The G4 Meltdown

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G4’s attempted return didn’t go so well, as shortly after the brand’s relaunch, hostess Froskurinn went on a tirade about sexism in response to a viewer’s comment.

It’s a bit of a dirty secret among content creators that once you’re big enough, you don’t interact with the audience. Mainly because of stuff like this.

Back when G4 was at its height, it was actually considered a respectable outlet by gamers. I didn’t pay it much mind, considering that I preferred to use the internet to hear the opinions of my peers, rather than have journalists attempt to tell me what they are. But I did have an IRL friend that was into G4, so it was something that I heard of. I didn’t care or notice when G4 was gone, however. Life goes on.

When commenters were going on about how they didn’t find Froskurinn as attractive as a previous host, this clearly got under her skin, which led up to the explosion. Personally, I suspect that the comments were troll comments. If so, she handled them the wrong way.

When you’re being trolled, you’re not supposed to let them know they’re getting to you, as the usual point of trolling is to get a reaction. An angry outburst was the exact opposite of how Froskurinn should have handled it, as it’s giving the trolls what they want. When Chris-chan was being trolled, it got to the point that trolls suspected that they were being trolled right back, because he consistently handled the matter poorly, often by completely flipping out.

Right now, G4’s ratings are plunging. And I don’t feel bad for them. Attacking your own fans is a bad strategy for content creators. While one might bring up the co-hosts, and how they might not sincerely hold Froskurinn’s views, the fact is, they were right there, clapping like trained seals, playing along to try to avoid being a pariah in the eyes of a dominant feminist, and they found themselves in that position because of a failure to gatekeep.

This matter conveniently comes up just as I’m hearing chatter about how journalists want to try to bring back GamerGate. Why would they want that? Because journalism is in the gutter, clicks are down, people don’t trust them, and they want that enraged engagement that they got from the GamerGate days.

But it’s not going to work, and here’s why: GamerGate was a precursor to the woke movement that’s been around for a while. It may not have been the main catalyst, but it played a huge foundational role. The fact is, GamerGate already happened, and the woke debacle is still ongoing, and has progressed to the point that people are getting sick of it, and is getting public pushback. If another GamerGate were to happen now, it would just be considered another element of the woke movement that people are already sick of.

Trying to bring back GamerGate now would be like trying to ignite an engine that’s already running, and on the brink of failure.

Right now, journalism is in a shitty state. At this point, few people trust them, and journalists are attempting to hang on to viewership with a steady stream of outrage-porn to keep the few they have left interested. That, and they have old people who remember way back when news was their only outlet for information.

They pursued the quick-and-easy, waving off the price that they’d have to pay in the long-term. Now, the time has come for them to pay the price. Naturally, they don’t want to pay it.

The moral of the story is, gatekeep as though your business depends on it. Once someone from one of the many flavors of woke get in, they have a knack for hijacking your brand, and making everything about themselves. Once it gets to that point, it gets hard to remove them in a way that avoids causing more damage.

I wasn’t interested in G4 back in the day, and I’m still not. And if they’re going to lash out at their viewers and go woke, they’re just going to end up with attention that they don’t want. Maybe they’ll go as far as to say that they’ve fallen while on a moral high-ground, as a cynic’s quest typically ends.

Those who die on the hill of their choice, still die.

Maybe next, the Bidens should invest in Werther’s Originals.

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Hey Biden, how’s the jaw? It looks like a you took a solid one-two.

Just yesterday, one of two blows were dealt to the Biden administration. One was from the Supreme Court, which struck down an attempted vaccination mandate on employers with at least 100 employees, saying that the President had no such authority, and pointing out that the likes of Covid-19 was a universal concern, and not specifically a workplace hazard. However, in a split-decision, the court upheld a similar mandate on healthcare workers.

This was a huge blow to the Biden presidency, for which this was considered a flagship piece of legislation, and would have been a significant part of Biden’s legislative legacy.

Opponents such as myself were concerned, considering that if the Supreme Court had favored it, the mandate would have fundamentally changed the relationship between the individual and government, as the government would have mandated a consumer product, and what’s more, the product would have been an irreversible medical procedure, violating the individual’s bodily autonomy.

I can only imagine how much Hunter Biden lost in investments.

But hey, it helps to have a backup plan, in case things go awry. That’s why Biden wanted to end the legislative filibuster, which would have made it simple to push through a bill that would have allowed non-citizens to vote without identification.

That’s where Biden suffered another blow. Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema came out in opposition to changing the long-standing legislative filibuster, effectively denying Biden the majority he would have needed to end the filibuster, and ending his dream of pushing through what he pleased.

This left Biden reeling, as the announcement came about an hour before Biden was to address Senate Democrats, and his writers had to scramble to come up with something for the man to read from his teleprompter.

Unless Biden can invent another way to screw things up, he’s on the fast-track to becoming a figurehead for the rest of his term. His popularity is expected to continue to reach new lows, as inflation is getting out of control, and the costs of gas and food are continuing to rise, with no apparent plan to mitigate these problems.

Of course, it’s not helping him that he’s been devising schemes to make peoples lives worse, and continuing with the divisive rhetoric, and painting a bleak outlook, all while offering nothing in the way of encouragement.

Just sit him down in his recliner, put a blanket over him, and give him a small bowl of Werther’s Originals to hand out. Biden’s best days are behind him.

Don’t Like a Piece of Art? Here’s a Flow Chart to Assist You.

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Waterhouse_Hylas_and_the_Nymphs_Manchester_Art_Gallery_1896.15

Back in 2018, a #MeToo campaigner complained to an art exhibit to have a work removed because the person was triggered by it. Shortly afterwards, the work was reinstated after public outcry. The work in question was the one pictured above, a Victorian era painting titled Hylas and the Nymphs.

Great work guys, you censored a work of art from over a century ago that took inspiration from a fable thousands of years old just to satisfy a blowhard belonging to a fad movement.

It’s because of things like this that people don’t take feminism seriously. And it backfires when people become ashamed to identify as feminists,  as indicated by this note left for the curator:

feminist note to curator

If you spend time looking at art, you’re bound to find something that’s objectionable to you. If you dislike a work of art, your solution is simple: If you don’t like it, don’t look at it.

If this process comes off as novel and confusing, I’ve provided a simple flow chart to assist you:

art flow chart

That pretty much lays it out. If you’re still unable to follow, then you shouldn’t have been able to operate an automobile all the way to an art exhibit without causing an accident. Learn to drive.

And while you’re at it, stop assuming that every artistic expression of nudity and sexuality somehow demeans women. Nudity is the natural state of the human body, and is not inherently evil. Sexuality is one of the most human traits, and is a universal part of the human experience. An expression of either one doesn’t devalue women. Or anyone, for that matter.

And if, after considering all this, you still don’t like a work of art, just don’t look at it. I doubt that you fill the Pictures directory of your computer with images you don’t like, so why go out of your way to personally view a piece that only makes you upset? Just move on. Calling yourself a feminist doesn’t give you permission to decide for everyone else what art they have access to. Stop assuming that the rest of us can’t handle what we see.

Feminists have a very negative view of the general population, and this is what guides their attempts to decide for us what media that we have access to. Museum goers did a good job of not letting them. Very well done, keep it up.

Overweight People Now Have a Card to Present to Their Doctors to Avoid Stress

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There are cards circulating for to present to doctors, to ask them not to weigh the presenters so the presenters can avoid the stress of knowing that they’re not in good health. The front side is pictured above, and the back is below:

And now for the hot take:

It’s hard to decide on just one thing that is funniest about this, because it’s hilarious on multiple levels. Here’s the weight-card-ridicule starter pack:

  • The implication that eliminating any possible source of stress is more important than taking care of the only body that the presenter would have for the rest of their life,
  • The insistence on burying their head in the sand rather than acknowledge that they have a problem,
  • The insistence that no one point their problem out to them, further enabling them to ignore it,
  • The implication that lighter people don’t have the same problem with stress over their weight, which is simply wrong,
  • The implication that they know what’s healthier for them than a trained, licensed, college-educated medical professional,
  • That weight stigma matters more to the buffoon than getting their sorry ass in shape.

I get it, becoming physically fit is not easy. You know what else is hard? Going for just about anything else that’s worth going for.

But apparently, it’s also hard to just ask your doctor not to weigh you, because it seems someone has decided that it would be easier to print up some cards to present to a doctor instead.

While we’re at it, why don’t we eliminate the spoken word wherever we deem it inconvenient, and present cards with preselected statements that people commonly use in the hopes that the recipient will accept them in place of actually talking to them? I’ve already thought of a few simple phrases that would fit on business-card stock:

  • Let’s have sex.
  • Make that a super-size.
  • I’d like to speak to your manager.
  • It’s my duty to inform you in accordance with Megan’s Law that I’m a convicted sex offender living in your community.
  • My preferred pronouns are (write in your own)
  • That credit card is a decoy. Just play along.
  • Dark Magician (Dark) 7 star [Spellcaster] ATK/2500 DEF/2100
  • For Avon cosmetics, call me at __________.

Why bother with simple social inconvenience when we can kill a few trees, instead?

If you don’t feel comfortable talking about your “Health at Every Size” now, it will definitely make for interesting conversation when you’re dying due to obesity-related complications. But if at that point you’re still not up for it, then maybe by that point you’ll have thought up a few witty cards to present when the time comes.

Would it be wrong of me to look forward to it?

Biden Gets New Dog, Ditches Old One

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The replacement.

Biden just added a new dog to the Biden family, named Commander! The new dog is a German Shepherd, just like Biden’s previous dog, Major.

Oh, you’re wondering what happened to Major, right? The Bidens just handed him over to a new home. Why? You may remember Major as Biden’s presidential show dog, which had problems with biting White House staff.

As anyone who has owned a German Shepherd should know, what a German Shepherd needs is a strong leadership presence, otherwise, it will test limits and misbehave. And considering that Major’s leadership presence was Joe Biden, it’s quite predictable how things turned out.

I don’t see much reason to be nice about this, as few things are as upsetting as people who purchase animals for frivolous reasons, then get rid of them when they require too much attention. It’s even worse when these people then proceed to adopt another of the exact same animal. When people do this, it’s obvious that it’s just a show animal, purchased for narcissistic reasons.

I know that it’s somewhat of a tradition for presidents to have dogs, and it looks better when that dog furthers an image of strength. A German Shepard is indeed a manly dog to have and properly take care of. But when Major ran wild, biting people as it pleased, that goes to show just what kind of leadership that Major had to look up to.

That Biden got another German Shepherd immediately afterwards goes to show that he did not learn his lesson. And it might be interesting to pay attention to just how things go with the new dog, but we’re getting a far more interesting show as we watch Biden’s inability to run a country.

German Shepherd Arranges Sheep In Shape of Syringe to Prove Something

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Remember when a bunch of FakeBook users changed their profile photos in an effort to fight cancer, misogyny, and child abuse, but mostly just to prove that they’re herd animals? (Pepperidge Farm remembers!)

To continue the ongoing theme of expressing support through worthless gestures, a German farmer decided to arrange his sheep in the shape of a syringe in an effort to encourage taking the Covid-19 vaccine, or something.

If there’s anyone who can identify with having a bunch of sheep listening to them, it’s the governments of the world, who don’t need the help of some hick playing banjo in the woods. Threatening people’s jobs and freedoms has been plenty effective, just ask the people who want to see your papers before you’re allowed into a theatre to watch The Matrix.

The entire effort goes against the intended end when you consider the people that are bringing this up as yet another example of how the coof lockdowns made people’s brains break, and has turned the pro-vaxx crowd into a cult.

While the Greek Orthodox man arranges the pins in the shape of crosses at the grocery store bulletin board, the Branch Covidians would arrange their sheep in the shape of a syringe in what can be described as a fitting allegory for their government’s relationship with them.

Perhaps another farmer can make a point by taking a booster right in the rooster.

NASA Took Interest in How People Would Respond to Extraterrestrials

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There is a story going around that makes the claim that NASA hired 24 theologians to help determine how humans would respond to news of finding aliens.

Except, that’s not entirely how the matter went down. As pointed out by Inverse, NASA provided an $11 million grant to a Princeton study that looked into how humans would respond to finding extraterrestrial life. What’s more, the team didn’t consist entirely of theologians, it consisted of a variety of experts, a theologian being among them.

Most people alive today are religious, so the question of how religious people would respond to the idea of extraterrestrials is a valid one. I suspect that the Christian world would take the news well, considering that it was out of a predominantly Christian background that we got Star Wars and Star Trek, with Star Wars having more apparent religious themes.

The religious group that I’d be more concerned about would be the Muslims. They have a tendency to respond not-so-kindly when anything challenges their worldview, which happens to be easy to do, even accidentally. It doesn’t help that their worldview is seriously narrow. If the first land that aliens were to set foot in was the Middle East, we might be in trouble.

Some have taken what they heard to mean that NASA has made a huge discovery, and they decided to look into how to deliver the news to the world at large. That sounds plausible, considering the amount of money they invested into the project. But it might be that they were curious as to the possible sociological impact of a potential discovery in the near future.

The story got some folks from the Project Blue Beam crowd buzzing. If you’ve never heard of Project Blue Beam… I’m hesitant to call it a “conspiracy theory” due to the sheer number of things conspiracy theorists have gotten right, lately. Maybe we need to think up a new term to use for crazy, crackpot fringe ideas. But if you’ve never heard of Project Blue Beam, look it up. You might get a laugh out of it.

And before we get carried away, ”extraterrestrials” doesn’t necessarily mean “advanced interstellar civilization”, it could just mean, ”we found some moss on Mars” or something like that. Which would still be an awesome discovery, but not necessarily a childhood dream-come-true.

But if we did find some interstellar travelers, one thing to be concerned about is that they might not have our ideals. It might be that they’d be giving socialism its 5482nd chance to fail tragically, and our own lives might become miserable again for the time it takes for the hundred-or-so million people to be killed to realize that it’s still a garbage economic philosophy.

But hey, if they’ve managed to master interstellar travel, they had to have figured it out, right?

Why Konata Izumi Is Such a Sad Character

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EDIT: As brought to my attention by a commenter, this post was based on a false premise. Konata’s mother did not commit suicide, as I had previously believed. In light of this, I decided to switch this post to draft until later writing up this disclaimer. Rather than hiding it, I’m just going to admit that I goofed.

So then, how did I make this mistake? I think I have an explanation. Back in the late 2000s, when I was watching Lucky Star, I was also reading a manga called Oishinbo, which starred a main character who blamed his father for his mother’s death. In my mind, that carried a strong implication. After hearing about the death of Kanata Izumi, in my mind, this carried a similar implication.

Later, when I decided to write this article, I was depending on my memory of Lucky Star. But the problem was, because my memories of two different manga characters was confused, I remembered them wrong. Not only that, a lot of time had passed, so there was a lot of potential to err.

I already knew that human memories are faulty, which is something I find disturbing and fascinating. There are a lot of things that people remember wrong, but don’t have any way of knowing. In this case, the person who remembered wrong was me.

While some of the commentary that I made in this article may be interesting, it remains that the article was written based on a faulty premise. Still, here it is for you to read if you care to do so.

You may remember Konata Izumi as that happy-go-lucky character from the anime and manga series Lucky Star who is a regular fountain of pop-culture references.

Right from her introduction, and throughout the series, she’s depicted as plucky and snarky. What’s more, she indulges in a high volume of entertainment media, has little filter, and happily embraces the title of “otaku”, a term with a negative connotation in Japanese culture because it means “fanatic”, and is used to describe a person obsessed with entertainment media to the detriment of career and personal development.

However, Konata is a sadder character than meets the eye. Because Konata is a fictional character, it’s easy to take for granted that she’s the way she is because that’s the kind of character the writer wanted. But in real life, people’s personalities don’t develop in a vacuum, there are reasons people are the way they are. To the surprising end of developing Konata’s character, there’s a moment in the anime that shines some light on her background, and her character becomes far more understandable.

Early on, Konata’s friends visit her at her house. While there, they find a photograph, and mistakenly identify the woman depicted as Konata. But Konata corrects them, pointing out that the woman in the photograph is her mother, Kanata.

Then, Konata drops the bomb. She casually reveals that her mother is dead, and that she had committed suicide.

Then, it all starts to come together. Konata’s heavy consumption of entertainment media is a coping mechanism, and her lack of filter and willingness to take on a title that most would consider undesirable just for identity demonstrates the kind of detachment that would naturally come with the kind of person who came to the point that they don’t care what anyone thinks.

And Konata came to that point in an attempt to cope with a broken family.

The fact is, spousal abuse is an epidemic in Japan, and in many cases, the abuse escalates to the point that the wife commits suicide. When this is the case, the woman may be leaving behind a family that attempts to cope in ways that they don’t anticipate.

While Konata’s character remains light-hearted through the rest of the series, from that point on, she appears in a slightly different light. One’s family life, particularly in their childhood, plays a huge role in how that person develops. Behind Konata’s low-filter, carefree attitude hides a tragic family life.

When Lucky Star really took off in popularity, anime fans everywhere developed a huge nerd-crush on Konata, seeing her as a character that they could identify with, and in many cases, she was declared a “waifu-character”.

But considering her family history, a man that finds a woman like Konata would have to make sure that she feels loved, rather than treat her like merchandise.

Source: Good Smile Company

“The funniest people are the saddest ones.”

Confucius

Looks Like We’re Done With the Federal Mandates.

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Joe Biden, in a meeting with state governors, went over plans on how to handle the Covid-19 epidemic. During which, he had this to say:

“Look, there is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level,”

Joe Biden

We know how the United States of America works: Each of the states has the authority to govern their own affairs, with limited intervention on the part of the federal government. That’s one of the basics of United States government, and one of the reasons why some states may have different laws than others.

It’s great that Biden has come around to realizing the obvious, but it brings up a question. Actually, it brings up a few, but here’s the big one:

Did Biden just admit that he’s giving up on his vaccine mandates on employers?

Because that’s what it sounds like. Granted, Biden’s OSHA scheme was issued a stay by a federal court by reason of grave constitutional concerns, and at this point, it’s looking like it might not go much further.

While Biden’s statement fell short of admitting that he was wrong to issue federal vaccine mandates, in saying that there’s no plan on the federal level (outside of providing assistance to states that request it), Biden is pretty much giving up on federal intervention as far as handling Covid-19.

While I’m among the many who are ready to move on, I think we can agree that there should be consequences for the damage that the Democratic party helped cause when it comes to how they handled Covid-19. While they may be backing down now, I haven’t forgotten that it was the Democrats that were the ones that got behind excessive lockdowns that threatened or destroyed livelihoods for millions of Americans, resulting in a wave of suicides. Even now, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 epidemic, America is facing a mental health crisis.

It’s plain to see why Democrats are backing down: midterms are coming, they’re facing a big red wave, and they can see that their president and their own policies are unpopular. What’s more, parents are freaking out because they’re finding out what pure untreated sewage that schools are pushing on their kids.

People are pissed, and we could end up seeing record turnout at primaries to get the establishment out. It’s no secret that people have had different values than the political establishment, and the Democratic party is as establishment as it gets.

They’ve pissed me off to the point where I got involved. I didn’t originally want to get involved in politics. To me, a fun time is hanging out with friends, drinking beer and playing games. But then, what leftists did had an effect on me, and on people that I know. That made it personal.

It’s because of this that their little attempt at saying “You can have your freedoms back now, just please don’t be mad at us in the upcoming midterms” is going to be met my me looking back at them, and saying, “no”.

Having said that, the left is certainly free to back down from their hardline positions in an effort to reduce the consequences against them. Depending on what they do to make peace, it might somewhat work. But they’ve got a lot to damage to repair, so they’d better get started.

Okay, now on to the second question: What exactly has Biden and his leftist buddies been doing all this time?

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Democrats have been exploiting everything about the virus in an effort to accrete more power to themselves. At the outset, it was “fifteen days to slow the spread”, which wasn’t even about eliminating the virus, it was more about preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed by a sudden influx of visitors. But as people complied, more demands were added in an apparent effort to see just how far people could be pushed. We’re now about two years in, and some places have yet to see the end of lockdowns, and blue states in particular have borne the brunt of the most unfair restrictions.

When the vaccine was introduced, at first it was like “take this, then you can have your old life back”. But when people took it, Democrats proceeded to blame everyone who didn’t want to take a vaccine that hasn’t been sufficiently tested, and proceeded to place restrictions back on people who already took the vaccine.

Source: LanceEasley.com

At first, bribes were offered to motivate people to take the vaccine (like a lottery, for example). But then, they started threatening the jobs of the unvaxxed, because nothing says that they care about someone’s safety and well-being quite like destroying their livelihoods and putting them out in the street without a home.

And then, they attempted to coerce people into taking a booster, then a third shot, then a fourth…

And now we’re to the point where the left is figuring out there could be consequences to them in the mid-terms, so we’re now seeing Biden backing down and leaving the matter to states.

And now Anthony Fauci is out doing damage control in an effort to avoid being justifiably pilloried:

Hey Fauci, I have something to say about that. Come closer. Lean in. Ready for it? Here it is: NO FLIPPING JOKE! That’s exactly what those of us on the ground had already known from the outset of the epidemic! Did you really just figure this out?

And then, on top of that, Fauci admits that children with Covid-19 are being counted among those who were hospitalized of Covid-19, thus inflating the numbers. And if you can’t tell the difference, you might have a future in government.

https://twitter.com/TheEliKlein/status/1476917049435856925

Enlightening. Maybe next he’ll tell us that people who are “fully-vaccinated” can still spread Covid-19, right? Oh wait…

It’s great that Fauci figured out the value of keeping society running, but personally, I suspect that some amount of self-serving is behind his new position. Being a government employee, Anthony Fauci’s income is entirely dependent on people who, unlike Fauci, produce value. Therefore, it’s to his benefit that people are allowed to actually produce value. Thus, it’s counterproductive to continue calling for measures that disrupt business and supply lines. When you understand this, it’s plain to see that Fauci’s favored policies fit nicely under screwing the pooch.

I’d like to close this article with an observation. Notice how Fauci is now coming out and saying things that most of us already knew since the start of the epidemic, particularly as things are going badly for his pet policies?

This is reminiscent of an interrogation technique employed by American intelligence during the War on Terror. When a terrorist that was suspected of having information was detained, he’d be exposed to news stories during his confinement. Those news stories were carefully selected to show that things weren’t going so well for his fellow terrorists, which had the effect of inspiring a why-not-tell-all attitude in the terrorist, resulting in him giving up valuable information.

Perhaps something similar is happening with Fauci. It may be that he sees what’s going on, and just how poorly things are going for Biden, the Democratic party, and for his own legacy, so he’s starting to give in and come right out and say what’s been obvious to the rest of us for a long time.

“Longing… Impurity… Joy… Pain… I have cast them all away. Pick them up and carry them with you. All that you gather is your value.”

Belaf, Made in Abyss

And the award for the most ignorant tweet of the year goes to…

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You ever have a difficult time sleeping because you know that someone out there is using the internet to say something ignorant? This time, we have the President of the United States to blame.

Before we get to his tweet, check out his header:

Ever the entrepreneur, the salesman in chief will take every opportunity to plug for his corporate interests.

While there have been a great many bad tweets this year, the Commander in Cheat has come through with a strong late-game push. Now, submitted for your amused disbelief, here’s Joe Biden’s own take on his own performance:

In the most transparent attempt by a D-student to give himself an “A”, Biden hopes that his attempt at weasel words will disguise what he considers a clever attempt to pat himself on the back. I suppose I could care who this hypothetical economic analyst is, but the term is so vague that just about any onlooker can claim to be one. But whoever it is, it’s likely that it’s one of Jabby-Joe’s corporate interests in big pharma.

Look, just because Beijing Biden’s corpo-buddies are making a killing doesn’t mean things are great for the rest of us. It’s certainly not great for those who want forgiveness for the student loans that they took out for a degree that basically comes down to a consumer product that wasn’t properly researched. It wasn’t great for the small businesses which collectively employ roughly half of Americans. The cost of gas and food is going up, which really sucks for those who barely afforded these things to begin with.

But apparently it was really great for the Biden family, which has the financial capital to be unaffected by the damage they help cause, and insulated enough that they have no problem kidding themselves into thinking that they’re actually helping.

Let’s go, Brandon.