Tariffs and Mediocrity and a Cheap, Empty Suit

So today the tariffs against Canada and Mexico are supposed to take place. I say "supposed to" because last time they got pulled back at the last minute, and delayed. But here we are for the second go at this, and I assume this time it's for real. And I'm exhausted. He's been in power for six weeks and already I'm overwhelmed like I was from 2016-2020, when he was in the news every moment of every day, and I couldn't avoid seeing his accordion hands, his weird, puckering monkey lips, and stupid fucking oompa loompa face.

Canada's promised counter-tariffs - I hope these hurt, but realistically, there's only so much you can do when you're about 12% of your larger, more aggressive neighbour's population. At this point, I know a lot of people have already changed behaviours, probably for good. Lots of texts and conversations with friends where I live about substituting this or that. Coffee I'll soon be getting from a local roaster, we cut out US orange juice immediately. I'm checking labels for made-in information, and from what I see at the stores, I'm definitely not alone. Some things will be harder, but the point stands that if people broadly change their behaviours, including not travelling to the US, it's going to hurt in I think a lot of unexpected ways. I know for me, the next four years, all my travel will be either in Canada, or internationally-elsewhere. Maybe back to the Dominican Republic, to Europe, who knows. But not the US, and maybe not for a long, long time after this, too. There's the open question about open elections ("have they had their last?"), about whether the spineless Republicans will alter the rules so he can run again, and of course about whether the elections themselves will be free. It's wild seeing the collapse of the US in real time, seeing a selfish, narcissistic man set the country's reputation on fire in a way it will likely never recover from. (What good are treaties if he decides he doesn't want to honour them? Why sign something if there's an excellent chance it just might not stand?)

There's a sense of sadness, not just for what we're losing, not just for the uncertainty of the future, but because of the utter mediocrity of it all. _This_ is the end of the American experiment, helmed by, by _him_? He's not handsome, he's not physically powerful or intimidating, he's not beguiling, he's not charismatic, he's a skinbag with a terrible spraytan who stiffs everyone he's ever met and who can't form complete sentences.

The best case scenario, the absolute best case, is that there are open and free elections and the Democrats take the House and the Senate and impeach him for one of a million things that should be the easiest of layups. But I sort of suspect we're past that: that if the elections happen, they won't be honest, that if he lives another four years (I'm talking a heart attack, you understand), he'll run again, or more likely than not, he'll just declare that no election will be held and challenge people to do something about it. Because that's the crux of it, isn't it? That he's never once in his waste of a life been held to account for anything, and not just Canada and Mexico, but the whole world, gets to pay the price.