Aaron Cynic

Also, for the record, the federal minimum wage should be at least $25/hour.

No incentives, no tax breaks, no bullshit.

The floor should be $25 and it should increase as the cost of living does.

In L.A., police nightsticks are clubbing press freedom to death | Will Bunch On Friday, LAPD cops allegedly battered and detained journalists at a protest — the ugliest of the many threats to U.S. press freedom.

10 journalists were put in cuffs and/or violently assaulted by LAPD on Friday night.

@willbunch.bsky.social wrote his Sunday @inquirer.com column about what this means for press freedom nationally.

My description: “Utter lawlessness by the LAPD... they seemed thirsty to crack skulls.”

Gift link:

In December of 2023, journalists in Chicago held a vigil for the then 70 journalists that were killed by the IDF.

It wasn't enough, because nothing will or ever can be enough.

"So many" is a great blanket in your statement that doesn't cover a lot.

There's a good comparison between flying & going to a festival. "Do you need access to food or water?" You only get one. "Would you like a bathroom that doesn't look like a horror movie?" Be thankful. "Would you like to sit down in the shade?" LOL

Fantastic! That'll be an extra couple hundred bucks

The best thing about capitalism is when booking a flight I have the choice between basic economy, economy, premium economy, economy plus, and 4 other options I can't afford.

Once I make that choice I still have the opportunity to spend more money to check a bag.

Truly the best system. No notes.

We are living in the worst time of all time

That train (and so many others) should be free! And run more frequently.

It's been ages since I've done an Amtrak to Michigan. It was fantastic, but couldn't have been fully car-free since once we arrived to our destination, there was literally no public transportation option. This is fixable, but it's a governmental/societal choice.

This is it right here. One of the reasons this has/will continue to be so difficult to change is that we're dealing with generations of people & infrastructure raised/built on the idea that cars = freedom, which is only true when there are no or few other options.

every american jobs headline is like “hey remember that thing capitalists pushed on you? turns out it was a crock of shit”

40% of households in my neighborhood don’t have a car. You would never know it if you looked at our streets. There are zero bus lanes, hardly any protected bike lanes.

ICE looted their restaurant and tried to break into the safe. News chopper footage caught them backing their cars up to the door and carrying out cases of food.

two men are sitting at a table in front of a crowd and one of them is saying that 's a bold strategy cotton Alt: A gif from the movie Dodgeball. Gary Cole and Jason Bateman are announcers at a desk with a crowd behind them. The caption reads "that's a bold strategy cotton let's see if it pays off for him."

"I already have infinite money and resources but...what's in it for me?"

I'm telling y'all

Chicago is the highest approval rating city in America. No one hates Chicago except maga swine and some NFC North rivalry stuff. I don't stan the place or anything, but I do notice patterns

No I'm not from there, didn't y'all see my y'all

Yes that very new and innovative idea of letting the peasants have whatever might trickle down after you got yours

You’ll have to pry my competent public official from my cold, dead hands

This is an obvious violation of reporters' rights.

Secret Service members should have basic First Amendment training, especially if they are going to be dispatched in the field.

Mamdani is not running on a platform of "I alone can fix it"! Will he be able to build the political goodwill and capital needed to make his platforms work? That's a big question, but that's *always* the question in any campaign.

"What do we want?

Maybe the ability to have a few nice things for some people sometime far in the future after they've been appropriately means tested!

When do we want it?

Eventually after we make sure fascists are sufficiently placated by giving up things we want and already have!"

Still pumped my fist!

Thanks I love it!

Nobody asked for this, but here's my a cappella version of "Protest and Survive" by Discharge during my reading of "Why Self-Publish Under Fascism?" at @quimbysbookstore.bsky.social last night. Apologies to Cal and the band. Credit to Jen Blair for the video.

And disabled people know that, long COVID folks & mentally ill people are some of the loneliest living in total abandonment, & a lot of people who become unhoused know that because they had nowhere to turn. We’re lonely because being there for each other is not a white supremacist capitalist value.

The loneliness epidemic is fact. But the sensationalism in media driven discourse, especially focus on men as though everyone else owes them, is never getting to the root. It’s individualism bred of capitalism & whiteness that isolates. It’s everybody trying to get theirs leaving each other behind.

I've had only one really bad one so far this year (Springfield-Chi) but that was because of a fire that happened between KC and STL, which backed everything up. Seems like for the most part, the shorter hops in the midwest run pretty smoothly.

Our trip this weekend going was exactly on-time and coming home was early, but it was a short run. Most of the ones I've done this year are between 2-4ish hours and have all been on time. Last long one was from Chi-Austin and was also on time. So, not so bad! BUT I know it still happens a lot.

You, a slack jawed Neanderthal: Duhh my tik tok where I make a weird face just made a million dollars. I'm going to eat a gold crusted steak to celebrate

Me, a modern philosopher: I've crafted a magnificent sentence on a website where my only reward is getting yelled at. I live for this shit

HACK THE PLANET!!

Love to be able to spend a weekend with dear friends and get there and back again quicker with the ability to enjoy coffee and a book