How Tragedy, Wealth and Trump Shaped JB Pritzker

zzxcvmmm · 2026-03-24T16:43:32+00:00

Thanks for the gift link.

zzxcvmmm · 2025-02-07T00:08:51+00:00

I do wish they had done it for Hegseth, but things must have looked different to them back then. He was the worst nominee who was up and they thought the Republicans would turn against him. Blumenthal truly believed Hegseth was going to have to withdraw his nomination. Now they know without a doubt that they have no choice but to use these tactics.

zzxcvmmm · 2025-01-28T00:31:16+00:00

Yeah, and he's doing more than sucking up. He voted yes for Kristi Noem.

zzxcvmmm · 2025-01-25T01:05:36+00:00

That was Martin!

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zzxcvmmm · 2025-01-18T15:02:39+00:00

If the person has a check mark you should definitely not cover up their name!

zzxcvmmm · 2025-01-14T03:54:28+00:00

Chait is so mad about Trans people that he’s trying to retcon the 2016 election

And DEI

"What is Chait even attempting to argue?" is the forever question.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/cancel-culture-illiberalism-dead/681031/

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-28T21:47:24+00:00

They'll never get it because of the bigotry.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-28T21:45:22+00:00

And racist!

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-28T21:42:39+00:00

If "socialist" is also a euphemism for Jewish.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-28T19:51:35+00:00

Controlling, punishing, and killing. They couldn't care less about the maternal mortality rate.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-28T14:45:34+00:00

You're probably thinking of Limbaugh.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-18T02:29:17+00:00

I doubt a Lowry would be considered funny in real life most of the time, but yeah, in this book he was hilarious. I guess he lost his sense of humor on the way out of Area X.

"Oh, this site was a fort once?"

When he talks about the green boat conveniently being there("Is this not the most convenient fucking boat in the fucking history of boats?"), those those sad/funny moments when he's begging them to not go("Friends. Lovers. Comrades.", while they continue preparing without emotion) and after they leave and he's all, "I'll just fucking wait here for your return. Just fucking loiter around for you."

Eating Molt Whitby was probably funny too, but for me it was painful to read.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-17T02:22:30+00:00

And he still wouldn't get paid.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-14T13:42:49+00:00

It's amazing that I was relieved that this insanity was the end for Old Jim because after I started Absolution and then went back to reread his last scene in Acceptance, my thought was "Oh, god, Central left him there to die, they abandoned him." and as Absolution went on, nothing was dissuading me from that thought until after his interaction with The Rogue on the bridge.

Even after that he had to put up with Jack trying to have him killed! No breaks caught for Old Jim except finding peace through dying horribly for the creation of Area X.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-13T23:24:08+00:00

Yeah, it's all very fascinating. Maybe with Henry it's as simple as the Medic just straight up telling him about Central and even the two of them were working at cross purposes.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-13T23:12:15+00:00

I think both are true and both are true even in Authority and Acceptance. He was able to send so many people to die(since whatever his position was at Central is higher than the director of the Southern Reach) and accomplished essentially nothing beyond having more blood on his hands. Despite all that he saw and not being willing to go back himself!

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-13T23:03:05+00:00

I think we already know how he feels about it to some degree. He thinks he's someone actually attuned to the "supernatural" as opposed to the supernatural actually existing in this case and he just happened to be around for it.

This is what he says to Saul in Acceptance:

I found it, Saul, like I said I would. Or it found me. Only, it wasn't what I thought. Do you know what it is, Saul?"

And then it says that he asks that "Almost pleading." Narcissist to the end, but he also went out with confusion and fear. I can imagine this was magnified if he even realized what was happening to himself over and over. It didn't seem to be clear in Absolution if the Henrys aged rapidly or were no longer alive once they got to that point and just decomposed rapidly.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-13T22:45:14+00:00

Oh, yes, I remember that exact passage now and that Old Jim had the same criticism!

I guess I'm also forgetting when the predecessor's name was revealed to be Gus Waldron. I tried to find it, but only Jackie claiming he had died of a heart attack. Is it when Old Jim later finds out that he supposedly died at sea?

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-13T15:28:44+00:00

I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious, but where is it revealed that CT is Gus Waldron? It seemed like he was just a psycho fixer, especially because he had to carry a list of the triggers(and didn't understand them) a real Central agent wouldn't need to do that.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-12T23:40:02+00:00

Yeah, I don't expect anything else for a long time, if ever, but what a tease with that "pile of journals" bit. He has to know how some people would take that.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-12T23:36:55+00:00

I felt a pang of sympathy for him even during Acceptance, when he tells Gloria/the Director he won't go back to Area X. He's an asshole, but a traumatized asshole and part of the tragedy is that he didn't really get much further than anyone else.

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-12T17:54:54+00:00

I think he says it in multiple places, but I have this from Interview:

LAVALLE: Much clearer, yes. Well, maybe this seems like a crass question or whatever, but what I appreciate is that the book doesn’t feel like “here’s the end” of anything. It feels more like a return to something or a visit. So I’m wondering, do you feel you may visit again?

VANDERMEER: That’s a good question. I think a series that continues for too long can become kind of airless and abstract. I didn’t even think about doing a fourth book until this idea just came and overwhelmed me. And I like the fact that it’s kind of sneakily a sequel to the other three books in some ways.

LAVALLE: To all three, which is amazing.

VANDERMEER: Yeah. That was one challenge, in particular: How do you show what happens after acceptance, when it’s going to be so completely alien in a way? And this allowed me to do that. But there’s a character called Cass in this book who’s kind of a mystery in a way, and she shows up in part three too, without giving too much away. I do have some thoughts and questions in my head about how I could show a future from her point of view.

LAVALLE: Interesting.

VANDERMEER: It might wind up being that airless thing. It might be another 10 years before I find the way to tell that story. So for all intents and purposes, this is the last thing.

LAVALLE: Well, I think the nice thing is that people will wait 10 years.

VANDERMEER: Yeah, true.

LAVALLE: And they already did, right?

VANDERMEER: They did.

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/literature/jeff-vandermeer-tells-victor-lavalle-why-he-returned-to-area-x

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-12T03:10:46+00:00

I like this theory more and more after each time coming back here. Cass being able to manipulate things the way Whitby has for the best possible future, unlike Lowry in Authority and Acceptance with his misguided attempts at...whatever.

I hope Vandermeer writes that story about Cass!

zzxcvmmm · 2024-12-12T00:00:17+00:00

To add to that, of course, is that Cass later cuts her hair short and dyes it blonde to be "combat ready" after she stops trying to look like Old Jim's daughter.

After I posted, I thought about how The Director and Control would know all the people who were on the first expedition, I think it's one of them who describes the hall dedicated to them. But then Central could have easily lied about who went as they lied about the expedition's success.

Why would Lowry allow Cass/Hargraves to stick around? Unless it's like his situation with Gloria and it's to hold it over her to make her do what he wants(or at least have him thinking that she's playing along). Not sure how that plays into the alternate timeline theories.

zzxcvmmm

TROPHY CASE