I Struggle With So-Called AI But it DID Allow Me to Create This

This Great Article About the Hidden Privileges of Trumpism Nails It

Trump's 'respectable' voters lie about his plans (and crimes) to dodge accountability for supporting those things

How fascism rises: Trump voters who claim he won't act on his violent promises aren't gullible. They're just lying to deflect from their support for those things.

Hunter Lazzaro at my new favorite website, UnchartedBlue.com

October 15, 2024 . 9:37 AM 10 min read

. . . What is more likely? That Trump's better-heeled supporters think he is just blowing smoke when he calls, over and over, for retributions and violence against his political opponents, against protesters, and against migrants? Or is it that they know full well he means all those things, and they like those things, and they want him to do those things—but also know that there would be serious social repercussions for saying that out loud?

The fabulously wealthy people who support Trump know what they're getting; they're not confused over it. From Silicon Valley cryptolords to the stalwart far-right backers of the Heritage Foundation and other think tanks, they want deregulation and they don't want to pay taxes—and they don't give a flying damn what happens to the rest of the country, so long as they get it.

And the not necessarily wealthy but still well-heeled Trump supporters that brush off Trump's promised and actual inflicted violence are not all innocent gullibles either; these were the sort of people who participated in Trump's Jan. 6, 2021 coup attempt, standing just behind the militia members who attacked police officers in order to allow the rest of the crowd to walk through the barricades and into the closed Capitol.

The whole article reminds me of the bizarre, surreal, unforgettable video I saw within a day or two of the insurrection on 1/6/21. The video was taken during the evening of 1.6, as things had quieted down, BEFORE Pelosi, Schumer and Pence decided to get on with the proceeding and finalize the election that night - the most consequential and critical decision of the whole debacle in my opinion, and one which I will forever credit Pelosi, Schumer, and even Pence for landing on. In the video, were hundreds of magats thronging the atrium, bar and lounge of a posh DC hotel, sharing drinks, having meals, and all a-hubbub about their big day in the Capitol. It was a sea of red hats and El Drumpfo merch, with a great many of them glued to their cell phones. SEVERAL times since then, I have tried to find the video, but it's gone down the e-hole. I really wish I could show it to you here.

At any rate, the main thing is that these people thought they were going to start a revolution, then go out for appetizers and a few drinks at the hotel afterward. As bizarre as that footage is, in a way it was reassuring. These aren't desperate rebels with nothing to lose. THEY'RE COS-PLAYING, and because they're predominantly white and privileged, many of them will get away with it. The moment anti-fascist forces, whether government-aligned or more homegrown, start really shooting back, let's just say uhhh . . . engagement in the MAGA movement is going to drop.

You Probably Didn't Hear . . . .

. . . that:

Holy Shit! Just This Week, El Drumpfo Called A 2020 Attack On U.S. Soldiers "A Very Nice Thing."

El Drumpfo was responding to a reporter's question in Milwaukee just a couple of days ago, and the exchange went like this:

Reporter: “do you believe that you should have been tougher on Iran after they had launched ballistic missiles in 2020 on US forces in Iraq, leaving more than a hundred US soldiers injured?” . . .

El Drumpfo: . . . they had to do that, and I thought it was a very nice thing.”

Ahem, excuse me,

Let me be clear. The Former President of the United States . . . who is running for re-election RIGHT NOW. . . stated that an Iranian missile attack on American soldiers was: "a very nice thing." In the same rambling, incoherent presser, he ALSO suggested that injuries 100+ U.S. soldiers experienced were mere "headaches."

WTAF??????????

This happened in the last 72 hours. So, here's my question . . . why are you hearing this just now, from me?

The traditional legacy media is so, so, dead - deceased, buried, with its ashes scattered to the far ends of the Earth. Guy wants to be President, but he calls an attack on his own soldiers "a very nice thing." Like, I get it . . . I know we live in crazy times. But how is this NOT news?

Dishwashers, Materialism, and the State of Things

I'm not sure what this says about me.

At 47, I just bought my first dishwashing machine.

First one I've owned.

First one I've had, in my home,

. . . as an adult.

Not sure what this says about me,

other'n that I've never had a dishwashing machine, as an adult.

Now, I try real hard not to put too much stock

into material things.

But I guess I can admit

that I am happy to have a dishwasher in my home,

which is NOT named "Rightie," or "Lefty."

I am not sure what that says about me.

Here They Go Again

Last month I was out and about in McKinley Park, when I saw a cop car cruising down a one-way street the wrong way, with no siren, no flashers, no apparent Big Important Police Stuff matter . . . . you know, just a cop ignoring basic rules of the road and safety norms . . . the same way they are 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the time I see them rolling though the neighborhood at all. I know this angle is not as serious as the killings of urban young men. Yet, I feel the two are BOTH symptomatic of the overall problem - a mindset that states: the rules don't apply to us. And driving on the streets, they are so frickin brazen. It's like they're rubbing our faces in it: laws, rules and regulations are for you, not me. Big huge problem IMO. It's infuriating.

Downtown Chicago Losing an Icon

From Leen Yassin at Block Club Chicago

Blommer Chocolate Closing Chicago Factory

WEST LOOP — Blommer Chocolate Company is closing its Chicago factory, officials announced Friday.

The facility at 600 W. Kinzie St. has been running since 1939, and it’s Blommer’s original manufacturing plant, officials said. The decision to close is due to the increasing costs and repairs required to maintain the building, which have also led to production reliability issues.

The facility is set to close in May, the Sun-Times reported.

That smell though!

I knew the smell of this place very well at one point in my life. The coolest part of it, IMO, was that they ran some train tracks right up along factory, just east of it. Once upon a dark evening, I was passing through there, and I watched them unload the raw cocoa beans off the rail cars. The beans were dumped into a weird conveyor belt they had running between the tracks. The belt ran under the alley, sort of, too. Dudes with brooms would sweep the stray cocoa beans that didn't make it at first, off the alley asphalt, and onto the conveyor belt. That detail stuck with me. I assume the uhh, "impurities" got cooked off later.

So I Guess the White Sox are Trying this Again Now. #KnowYourBillionaires ep. 2

I'm a White Sox guy. I like baseball, I want the team to do well, and I live off 35th. I'm not interested in a shiny new, $1.7billion+ stadium, paid for by my taxes. Maybe put a quality team on the damn field, and someone with two brain cells to rub together in the offices? Can my tax dollars go towards that instead? This sh** is so messy and mark my words, leaving the Old Comiskey site would create big, huge, messy issues for the team. They're messing with 120+ years of tradition in Bridgeport. I have dozens of happy memories there. F*** "The 78." The Sox are massively profitable (even when they lose). We don't need to give Jerry Reinsdorf $1.7 billion.

The other thing is, if this proposition gains traction, you can write off the team for the next 4-5 years, because organizationally, the entire thing will be about "new stadium." Trust me, "decent team on the field" will get put far, far into the backburner.

This billionaire is a huge, shameless A-hole. He does not give one poop in a rat's patoot about giving White Sox fans a better actual team to root for.

They're not going to move to Nashville, they're just threatening it, so they can bilk the people of Chicago for money for a stadium. Reinsdorf practically invented this strategy: ("creating leverage") the LAST time he got a stadium built on the public dime. Remember how thre Sox were gonna move to Tampa Bay? He later basically admitted that the St. Petersburg play was a ruse. And it's still working this time! At first glance it seems like our "progressive" Mayor Brandon is totally on board! Field of Schemes.