Just read that story. From the WGN article about his statement: "This matter was the subject of a completed investigation,” Vallas’s statement reads. “Gus Vallas was found not to have engaged in any violations of policy or procedure and has since returned to full duty.” 'No violation of policy or procedure'...but the guy is still dead. Weak ass response. I honestly don't have the strength tonight to go on another rant about extrajudicial police killings. The police have won and Vallas proves it. No accountability required or, really, necessary. They can kill with near impunity.
How many neighborhoods were destroyed to [have] the one to be rebuilt? No one wants their labor to make someone else a billionaire but business and government (a base requirement of fascism) work to make this so. Why do police beat up striking workers but not owners that lock workers out? Idiots think capitalism is some sort of “natural order” but it’s held in place by government force. Fascism. EDIT: Oh, look: Messages: Officer often fed information to Proud Boys leader https://apnews.com/article/biden-pr...apitol-siege-07b606c578399a4e24cc382a17f6f470
Maybe I'm not being clear enough on how these programs work. A real life example from my time there: A group of 5 women from the neighborhood asked for a loan to buy an oven/griddle? to make their families empanadas, thinking the org was a pure cash delivery NGO. The director met with them and helped them create a plan to purchase a new oven and finance enough materials to create double the empanadas they needed personally. They sold the extra empanadas and actually made loan payments out of their profits daily. The women ended up with the empanadas they needed and a decent profit. The women introduced the finance team to another woman who was a seamstress. The first group had wanted to use some of their profits for new school clothes for their kids (school was starting soon). The org financed a newish sewing machine and dying equipment for like $300. Suddenly that woman's capacity went way up and prices down. More people could afford the clothes and she made a good profit daily while working less. I found out later she took the extra she was making and financed her son's idea for a new general store (the neighborhood had been a food desert with approximately 30% of the population living off scraps from the local dump... This snowballed for a few years. By the time I visited again, the residents had used local tax revenues from the new businesses to fund a new school, build a community center/soccer field/basketball courts, etc. All this with local labor. Crime fell dramatically to the point the beighborhood became one of the safer ones in the city. Capitalism can be a powerful force for good, but needs proper regulation and safety nets.
Love it. It's important to remember that money is a tool. You want to build something, you need a hammer. That said, why would you want 400 hammers? Especially considering you could give 200 hammers away, still have more than you'll ever need and help 200 other people also build something they need.
“Billionaires cause hoboes, and hoboes make billionaires. Yet both cuss the other and say they are wrong. But personally I rather trust the hoboes. Most of what I know I learned from the kids and the hoboes.” -Woody Guthrie
So Bunge’s most recent post is kind of how I feel about microloans in other countries - we can’t celebrate capitalism for giving the appearance of solving the problems capitalism created. The most violent neighborhood in the world doesn’t happen in a vacuum- billionaires being the cause “hobos” and all. And these corps choosing who to fund is just their way of creating more potential capitalists - if they’d just pay their taxes, there’d be a lot less need for people to get loans from them. Anyway, I’m not we’ll versed enough in the specifics of it all but hey, at least there’s been an apparent overall improvement in the way of life for people in one part of the world. Somewhat related - the host of this is one of the more annoying people I’ve watched a video from (I don’t know why - his narrative style just strikes me as abrasive) and there’s plenty of hyperbole in it, but it does expose how the PR machine makes billionaires appear as warm and cuddly for doing shit that will ultimately result in more billions. I haven’t fact checked any of it, sorry- I have a bottle of wine and a new episode of The Last of Us to consume, but hey, it confirms my bias against billionaires so it has to all be 100% true - right?
No less than 20 election mailers in my mailbox over the past 48 hours. All but three of them related to my aldermanic race.
i'm in the 5th ward and i have no idea who i'm voting for for alderman never been so uncertain so late in the game for any election that I can remember
Probably too late for your to declare and run, I suppose. I just looked and the Hyde Park Herald has a very good series on the candidates. Wow, what an uninspiring list of candidates. I find it hard to believe that that neighborhood would not have better candidates. https://www.hpherald.com/evening_di...cle_b091c7a6-af24-11ed-a561-cfdaf02c3053.html (links to the candidate profiles in Paragraph 12 of the article) I would say you should go with Robert Palmer. Might as well face it, he's Addicted to Love.
Piamonte has always been against the PGA golf course in Jackson Park. That, for me, may be the deciding factor in my vote. The O Center has done enough damage to the park. We shouldn't kick community folks out of the park just so high rollers can get an exclusive view of the Loop.
it is but I haven’t heard anything about it from the City or others in a while hoping it’s a dead project
I saw them in the deserts of Arizona and Vegas, that was enough. I have successfully avoided Palm Springs my entire life.
A dead project? George Carlin had a routine that two biggest wastes of land are gold courses and cemeteries. I say combine them. Make every gold course a dead project by turning cemeteries into gold courses. The gold course only needs holes a few inches deep so they won't disturb the dead. The dead are dead so they won't care if people in ridiculous outfits and little spiked shoes walk (or drive carts) over them. All the rest of the golf course land can be turned into low income housing, saving some of the land for parks. Everybody wins!
The thing that got me to go to Arizona is I was paid to be there. I had a conference to attend. Other than that? Nah, I'm good.
I know. My point was that I have seen the "golf courses in the middle of the desert" in multiple states. I don't need to see them in Palm Springs, as well. They all piss me off.