As a small business that imports products from China, I want to do a small thread to illustrate how damaging and stupid Trump's tariffs are... and why the constant changes make it almost impossible to maintain, let alone grow, a business right now. Last weekend Trump told the world anyone against tariffs doesn't understand business, but yesterday he once again was running with his tail tucked trying to lower tariffs on China because businesses told him the damage would start showing up within weeks.

This is good, but...

I'm amazed at how many people on here talk about tariffs as if they have *any* idea how they function in reality.

As a small business that both pays and is being held hostage by them, let me be perfectly clear: Tariffs are a tax on US businesses that are passed on to consumers. The Trump administration calling tariffs a 'tax cut' for Americans is one of the most intentionally dishonest statements you will ever hear.

They know that tariffs are 100% charged to US businesses, but they're counting on people to be too ignorant to know they're being lied to.

CBS News Poll: Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade by an 18 point margin, 59-41.

Women disapprove by a 34 point margin, 67-33. It remains to be seen what impact the Supreme Court's decision will have on the midterms, but it has (for now) motivated Democrats to vote in much higher numbers than Republicans.

Independents are more likely to vote than Republicans, but more are also now less likely to vote.

If you insist that students need masks in school, you should not be taking your mask off in a school for any reason.

This isn't difficult - if it's too dangerous for kids to learn without a mask then it's way too dangerous for you to take yours off for a photo op. I thought masks were helpful early on and still think they have some marginal benefits when you're in a crowd for short periods of time (stores, etc).

But there are studies showing that masks on students in a classroom all day do next to nothing... it's well past time to stop.

CNN Poll: 73% of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine while 27% have not.

88% of Democrats, 68% of independents, and 60% of Republicans have done so.

35% of Republicans say they will not get vaccinated, compared to 25% of independents and 8% of Dems. CNN Poll: 88% of college graduates have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine while just 64% of non-college grads have.

87% of those who approve of Biden's job have received at least one dose against 57% of those who disapprove of Biden's job.

This article from the Federalist is the greatest thing they've ever written.

"Supreme Court has upheld [mandatory school vaccines] as constitutional for over a century, and only the political fringes believe there ought to be a debate about such matters."
thefederalist.com/2015/02/03/the… Every piece of this article is simply amazing from the Federalist:

"But that doesn’t mean there are no tradeoffs for such a decision (refusing vaccinations). If you choose not to vaccinate, private and public institutions should be able to discriminate on that basis."

UK Study: "There was no evidence that face coverings, 2-metre social distancing or stopping children mixing was associated with lower odds of COVID-19 [rates]... in the school. Primary school staff found teaching challenging during COVID-19 restrictions"

medrxiv.org/content/10.110… One of the things about "following the science" is that you have to be willing to change what the data warrants.

Masks in schools (esp elementary) have almost no impact unless they are N95s, and younger kids end up playing with them to the point where they are a detriment.

With all of the talk about inflation I wanted to do a quick thread to explain how inflation has been impacting my small business and will be impacting consumers even more in the days to come.

I've been talking about this all year, but this might give a better overview. 1/11 At the start of 2021 our supplier increased costs on all products by 20-35% due to the massive increases in materials on their end. We all saw this with the escalating costs of wood, glass, metal, etc.

That alone required us to increase costs on some items where we could. 2/11

I don't think kids should have mask requirements in school and I say that as someone who has been pro-mask.

The data is clear that kids aren't getting COVID as much as adults and severe illness is pretty rare.

Parents should make the call on if their kid needs to wear a mask. If a school district's area is seeing a massive outbreak, of course they should have temporary restrictions such as masks.

But to have a blanket mask mandate for a state is silly without some data-driven metrics to work with.

Being flexible is the key for school policies.

For the "vaccines don't work so why would I get one" crowd: Another very easy way to illustrate that the vaccines are not only working, but they're working amazingly well against the delta variant to prevent deaths.

I know a lot of people are profiting from pushing misinformation and the CDC is awful at messaging, but the vaccines work!

Steak-umm is taking it to Neil deGrasse Tyson and I am here for this battle of the titans. Whoever runs the Steak-umm account is not backing down and I'm enjoying this way too much.

These photos of the Shoebill Stork are not photoshopped, and I am both mesmerized and terrified.

They can grow up to 5 feet tall and while they don't attack humans they will stare directly into your soul if you get too close. Imagine walking outside and seeing this Shoebill Stork just staring at you.

This is the stuff of nightmares unless you can train it to do your bidding... then it becomes the nightmare of others.

Twitter has the right to suspend whoever they want, and Trump spent months begging them to do so.

But if they want to maintain any confidence in their rules, they need to apply them consistently across the entire spectrum of beliefs.

So far they have not come close to doing so. Twitter kept Trump's account open because he brought in a ton of valuable traffic, but this week were forced to acknowledge that traffic was also coming from people who were seeking to do harm.

The media did the same thing after giving Trump two billion in free airtime in 2016.

Trump comes out and immediately says that a "very sad group of people" are trying to disinfranchise those who voted for him today.

Just incredible to call the process of counting the votes disinfranchising voters. Trump says it "is also clear we've won Georgia" as the NYT needle shows Biden as the favorite to win the state.

ABC/Washington Post - National Poll (change from last):

Biden 54 (n/c)
Trump 42 (-2)
Jorgenson 2

Biden increases his already large lead from two weeks ago, leading independents by 12.

They are tied among men, but Biden leads women by 23(!) points.

Biden leads seniors 49-48. ABC/Washington Post poll: Biden leads Trump nationally by 12 among likely voters, 54-42.

Trump leads non-college grads by 5 while Biden leads those with a college degree by 34(!) points.

The two most striking gaps in 2020 are with gender and education.

Fox News national poll (change from last):

Biden 51 (+2)
Trump 46 (+4)

A slight tightening since the convention.

-Trump leads men by 6, Biden leads women by 15.
-Trump leads whites by 11, Biden leads non-whites by 54.
-Biden leads by 6 in the battleground states. I think this is a big reason that Trump's attacks on Biden aren't moving the needle - Biden's favorables are 16 net points higher.

Voters hated both Trump and Hillary in 2016, but Biden isn't Hillary no matter how much Trump tries to turn him into her.

The comedy on Twitter has taken a large hit tonight with the loss of Bill Mitchell's account.

Tonight, in honor of Bill's amazing tweets, we remember some of the gems he provided for us. #RIPBillMitchellsAccount I don't care what anyone says, this might be the greatest thing that Bill Mitchell ever tweeted.

#RIPBillMitchellsAccount #ItsJustMath

The replies to tweets about COVID-19 are so depressing.

When did politics turn into a religion where people rely solely on emotions while ignoring the evidence, data, and medical experts to follow a leader who blatantly lies every day?

Facts do not care about your feelings. I fully realize that many medical experts said not to buy masks in February, but they came around pretty quickly once they better understood how COVID spreads.

This idea that we can't change our approach to something is absolutely stupid. Do you still believe the Earth is flat?

Fox News swing state polls:

MI: Biden 49, Trump 40
PA: Biden 50, Trump 39
MN: Biden 51, Trump 38

These aren't surprising given the national state of the race, but you can see why Trump is having no success with his attacks on Biden - people view him favorably, unlike Trump. Fox News Poll:

Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in Michigan by 9 points, 49-40.

Biden leads among independent voters by 19, women by 18, and 9 in the suburbs.

Trump again polling below his job approval which stands at 45-54. He's also way below Gov Whitmer who is at 64-33.

Fox News - 2020 national poll (change from last):

Biden 49 (-1)
Trump 41 (+3)

Trump leads among men by 5, Biden leads among women by 19.

Biden leads among independents by 11 and leading by 26 among those under the age of 30. Fox News poll: Trump job approval ticks up to 45-54 (was 44-55 in June)

Trump is +7 among men and -25 among women.

Trump is -24 among independents and 'only' at 86% approval among Republicans.

Those are going to be just about impossible number to win with if they hold.