Aaron Cynic

those of you who are afraid of aging, please understand that one of the huge blessings of middle age is arriving at this exact station

I’m still thinking about Bari Weiss saying that Hasan Piker (extremely popular influencer) is less of a measure of where Americans are than Alan Dershowitz (extremely unpopular Epstein associate, his own neighbors won’t sell him a pierogi)

The first official confirmation that Noem herself made the decision not to turn the planes around. A couple hundred men were tortured as a result — and soon after, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Trump admin’s Alien Enemies Act process was a total violation of due process.

Imagine being this piece of shit gestapo fuck and being like “im just following the law. I am doing good.” But the problem is these fascist gestapo filth don’t think at all, and that is precisely their moral failure

Sometimes it’s really breathtaking to me that uber rich people preferred incompetent lying fascism over messy but functional democracy with the people who have some power. They went all in and left us with these absolute asshats to get their monopoly grifter dreams.

The airlines have enshitified flying for the last 25 years in order to chase higher profits and now the government is telling us that it's our fault for not smiling about it.

Love to be governed by fascist grifter bullies constantly yelling "stop hitting yourselves"

Jesus fucking Christ

This is one of those things that rarely gets talked about that has had a massive effect.

As fields like journalism, art, and academia were collapsed and living expenses skyrocketed they came to skew increasingly toward people whose families could afford to supplement their income.

50% of the US economy is AI and the other 50% is gonna be this

This is so awesome I love this so much

Federal agents launch another operation in St. Paul A witness said the number of agents "just kept growin' and growin' and growin," as did an angry crowd that was eventually sprayed with chemical irritants.

Thread, today in St. Paul, Minnesota raid and attacks by federal agents.

Dana Thiede, KARE11:

"As word spread about the operation unfolding on Rose Ave., neighbors and activists calling themselves 'constitutional observers' streamed in, holding phones in the air to videotape what was unfolding."

This is the breaker. The family works harder. They get promoted to $65,000. They are now solidly “Working Class.” But at roughly this level, childcare subsidies vanish. They must now pay the full market rate for daycare. Income Gain: +$20,000 (from $45k) Expense Increase: +$28,000 (jumping from co-pays to full tuition) Net Result: Total collapse. When you run the net-income numbers, a family earning $100,000 is effectively in a worse monthly financial position than a family earning $40,000.

"No one wants to work!"
"Why aren't people having kids?"

This stuff isn't even new, and it's still coordinated by our own, homegrown variety of fascists. They're just outsourcing the work. This is no more revelatory than finding out that a "made in the USA" product is only given a cursory finish here after all the parts are manufactured in Bangladesh.

Donate to Support Bethany MaGee's Recovery, organized by John MaGee On November 17, Bethany MaGee was riding a CTA train in Chicago when she was attacked. She… John MaGee needs your support for Support Bethany MaGee's Recovery

The family of Bethany MaGee, the CTA burn victim who was heinously attacked, has launched a GoFundMe with a statement asking for privacy. "She loves living in Chicago, and her gentle spirit makes her a favorite with every pet she meets."
www.gofundme.com/f/support-be...

And the fact that someone is posting from abroad is not proof in and of itself of a plot by that country's government to interfere in US politics. All it proves is that the pittance that can be made posting on Twitter is only worth it to someone living in a depressed economy.

i love it when the people who get paid by the government to answer my questions refuse to answer my questions

GIVE US BACK OUR TRAINS, DAMNIT

*__this post brought to you by autism__*

Fascist Lopez is trying to get a bike lane removed in Brighton Park!!!

@bikelaneuprising.bsky.social
@bikegridnow.org
@chi.streetsblog.org

#BikeChi
#ChiBike

95% of authors are not making a living through book publishing. The public needs to understand this.

Google description from 1999 "it's a pure search engine - no weather, no news feed, no links to sponsors, no ads, no distractions, no portal litter. Nothing but a fast-loading search site. Reward them with a visit."

Good times

Hi. Please support my favorite independent news outlet in Chicago. Unraveled's recent work revealed:

-DHS agent Timothy Donahue's racist X account.
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-IL Dems caved to RW law and order rhetoric and built a surveillance state using ALPRs

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At 55, I'm at the right age to think everything sucks compared to how things were back when I was hot and nothing hurt when I got out of bed in the morning. But when I talk to young people about the enshittification of basically everything, it's pretty clear that it's not just me being a curmudgeon.

It’d be exciting to think that Bluesky has people pretending to be American like Twitter but I honestly don’t think they could talk about Star Trek Deep Space 9 the way it’s expected here without having watched all the episodes a dozen times

I have been struggling with getting out work I publish outside of my own newsletter, and I think I found a solution. If you're anti-Substack or Patreon, or if you just really love me, you can get an email on Mondays at 10am sharing links.

It'll include all written work, and some video.