No shipments to the United States

We've decided to halt shipments to the United States starting April 1, 2025. Unfortunately, this is not a joke.

Under Donald J. Trump, the US government is threatening its allies with substantial import tariffs on all sorts of goods. Such import tariffs are levied on any order entering the United States and paid for by the person or company who placed the order. In practice, once the order enters the US, US customs calculates and applies the tariff and charges it to the person or company receiving it. This effectively makes tariffs an additional import tax that the customer (you) pays. While this is primarily an internal issue in your country, it also increases the chance of abandoned orders at the post office that need to be returned to us (and this costs us). As such, we have decided to halt shipments altogether. 

By the way ...

Now that we have your attention; in the book "How Democracies Die", the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt describe four key symptoms to know that a democracy is dying:

  1. Its leaders show a weak commitment to democratic rule, meaning they are more concerned with staying in power than following rules/constitutions/laws.
  2. Its leaders deny the legitimacy of political opponents and challenge the fairness of elections.
  3. Its leaders tolerate, encourage, or reward violence against opponents.
  4. Civil liberties such as those of the media, protestors, and opponents are curtailed.

These symptoms are clearly and unambiguously present in your country, meaning that your democracy is indeed dying. This isn't an issue of "left" versus "right", "owning the libs" or "being woke" - as your media and politicians frame it - but an issue of the wealthy and powerful claiming more and more for themselves and leaving less and less for everyone else. Democratic principles, such as an independent judiciary, fair and free elections, public media, and the rule of law, exist to protect those with less power and wealth from being bullied and abused by those with more. As such, it is no surprise that some people, typically very rich or otherwise powerful, are cheering on the demise of these institutions. Under the guise of a culture war, they mobilize an uninformed part of the electorate in their quest to expand their power and wealth at your cost.

Your democracy is there to protect you, your family, your friends, and your colleagues. Unfortunately, the damage being done to it by its current administration will take decades to repair if it can be repaired at all. Plus, countries will increasingly see the US as an unfriendly nation and an unreliable trading partner, encouraging companies to engage less with it (not more, as the administration believes). If any of this matters to you, the time to protest intensely, unambiguously, and in all shapes and forms is now—not tomorrow.

Christiaan & Barry
The Liberators