olá people,
trump slapped tariffs on brasil this week. if i wasn't born here, didn't live here, i probably wouldn't have noticed. did y’all? it's a big deal here. funny thing, brasil runs a deficit with the u.s., which means that we buy more for the u.s. than we sell. tariffs are supposedly (but not really) about creating exactly that type of deficit.
so why come after us? trump's craptastic buddy, bozo (aka bolsonaro), is cranky that he can't run for president in the next election. he tried to pull a trump, january 6th style, failed (like trump) and was held legally responsible for it and made ineligible for next election. bozo's son, eduardo, a nepo baby if there ever was one, ditched his political office and is in washington d.c. crying to trump about the injustice. trump really likes bozo (they are two peas in a toxic pod) and is basically telling the current brasilian president that if we don't give bozo what he wants, we get these big ole tariffs.
as much as i despise them all, i do kinda admire that kind of loyalty to your friends. kinda makes you ask yourself, would my friends be willing to bully my enemies?
just kidding. there is no loyalty among thieves, isn't that the saying?
in other news, i am sick. i am quite bitter and resentful about this. i had the flu for most of may and now, not even 7 weeks later, i have a cold. what? what is the matter with my immune system? my husband and daughter didn't get sick in may or this time. i am the lone fragile freak. sigh. i read a piece about how we have individualized health and how illness is equivalent to a moral failing. this is a long held belief, maybe traceable to the puritans (shake a fist at a puritan today!) but i only realized it recently. deeply ingrained. trying to fight it but mostly just quite disappointed in my immune system. wishing i'd drank more water and eaten less cake. because obviously that is more important than public health and microbiology. (it's not, it's really not. please don't listen to rfk jr about anything).
it's rather inconvenient (beyond being simply inconvenient because colds suck) because i am traveling to the u.s. this week. i'll be in nyc for 2 days and in philly for 2 days. if you have any vegan recommendations for harlem/the upper east side (not brooklyn) or philly, let me know!
it's the first time ever that i'm nervous about flying into the u.s. i have u.s. citizenship but i was born in brasil. for the first time in my life, it feels like a possibility that i could be denied entrance. for no reason. any reason. who knows.
just strikes me that it is a weird weird time we live in.
and i like weird. a lot. but not authoritarian, cronyism, xenophobic weird.
wish me luck and stay safe.
abraços,
m