larmalot

[larmalot]

these pants were really something

🔥🔥🔥 🥵

[larmalot]

There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[larmalot]

this is a good way to look at things

My default assumption whenever I see people pitching fits about how characters or ships or the color of the wallpaper or whatever else they don't like must be evil, is that they are a teenager.

They are a teenager who has never used anything other than an algorithmic feed on a social media app to find fannish content, they don't even know where the settings page is, and they're having a real bad time. They have to get up early in the morning, school is awful, all their clique-y peers have been mean to them about their weight, their teachers are impatient, they just got seven hours of homework and their last class was gym. And they are eternally frightened that they're secretly a bad person and their only current recourse against this is to be like, at least I know that pineapple on pizza is a sin.

Approaching things from this angle has never steered me wrong. Even when the person in question is not literally a teenager, they're still pretty much letting their inner kid drive the bus right now.

"A four year age gap is abusive!" okay champ. Screen time's up. Let's get you a protein shake and a nap.

[larmalot]

I feel like the closest modern day equivalent to the specific flavor of unrequited love you find in Chivalric romances is having a crush on a barista or some other retail worker. It can never work and on your honor you should never act on it but you live to see her smile all the same.

[larmalot]

his reactions are always amazing

the third gif "it is my job to look cool and edgy with this enormous croissant, and i am a professional" needs an award

james and the giant peach j-hope and the giant croissant

[larmalot]

Words are superfluous here

[larmalot]

please protect him at all costs

{cr. moreloveforhobi}

[larmalot]

the labeling of the trashcans is what makes this truly *chef's kiss*

[larmalot]

Charmed | Prue + Chris Parallels

Requested by @eljmoretti & @acevampyre Taglist: @holyhalliwells, @phoebehalliwell, @dailycharmedgifs, @wearethecharmedones, @charmedxfanforum, @prudencemelinda, @raith-way, @this-is-my-bisexuality  

[larmalot]

I’m living for The Odyssey discourse on Twitter right now because some people are like, “You’ve never heard of the odyssey” and other people are like, “some people don’t speak English and haven’t read your little American book.”

[larmalot]

I think we owe an apology to the Americans, looks like at least some of the issues with their healthcare system can be addressed with guns

[larmalot]

Flow (2024) AKA Straume

[larmalot]

Flow (2024) | dir. Gints Zilbalodis

[larmalot]

I saw this incredible film yesterday and got to hear a few cool things from the director. Very annoyed i didn't raise my hand and ask about merch! Though i kind of doubt there will be any. The movie is very introspective.

Interesting to hear how difficult it was to finance a film with no dialogue. Apparently they had a different script just for investors that was more evocative and spent many lines describing characters' emotions.

Flow

directed by Gints Zilbalodis, 2024

[larmalot]

his laugh is everything (4/?)

{cr. 0613data, dwellingsouls}

[larmalot]

jungkook and his big doe eyes against the world

[258/547] — until we meet again, jungkook ♡

[larmalot]

I know a lot of us are probably feeling a flurry of different emotions right now (no spoilers, you’re good to keep reading). Some are probably sad or angry or lost because of what they did or did not do. But I just wanted to say that for what time they had left, I think they did a very good job at wrapping the story up. I know we all wish they could have stuck with their original plan, but when you look at the overall story for S3 you can tell that they really tried their best to give us the story they were going to give before they had to change their course. And it’s understandable why every episode in the season was so short so they could give us an hour long finale. They had a very limited budget to work with and they did the best that they possibly could. Yes, I know we all wish that things could have been different, but they cared so much about this show. About the story they were writing, the incredible characters that they created, the world they lived in. For some of them it was their life’s work. The thing they hold as their highest accomplishment. And that’s such a special thing to have been able to witness. To be a part of. To love and cherish just like they do.

So keep on theorizing and imagining and talking and loving these people that we all adore. Just remember that they loved these people just as much as we do, if not maybe more, so be kind to them. I’m sure a lot of them feel awful for having to rush so many things and feel like they might have failed us as fans, but in the end they were still able to give us an incredible story. So please be sure to show them their support. And if you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at Disney. Just never stop loving Bad Batch🖤