Chris Uturo

GVSU ‘22

[America @america]

America is the greatest country in the world and it’s not even close 🇺🇸

[JustBreathe @stargazing90]

Everyone okay with that? They took money from every pay check ever had and spent it somewhere else..pissed yet?

[bumbadum @bumbadum14]

Illegals were getting 2% interest rate covid FHA mortgages with 0 down payment backed by the US Government.

Thats why we cant afford a fucking house.

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Chicago lost the Bears this week. A team that's been in the city since 1921.

They didn't lose them to a bigger market or a better deal. The Bears decided they'd rather be a tenant in Indiana than deal with Illinois for one more year.

Think about how badly you have to run a place for that to be the smart move.

They lost them for two reasons.

The people running Illinois would rather villainize a builder than keep one. And they're bad at their jobs.

In 2021 the Bears spent $197M on the old Arlington Park racetrack.

Before they could break ground, Cook County valued the empty lot at $192M (Bears said $60M). They were salivating at the chance to extort a building that didn't even exist yet.

That fight dragged on for years.

The Bears were ready to put $2B into the stadium. All they wanted was a promise the county wouldn't reassess them into oblivion, plus $855M for infrastructure everyone uses. Roads, transit, utilities. A $3B project, two thirds of it private money pouring into Illinois.

Springfield had since 2021 to get this done. They dragged it to the final night of session, passed it through the Senate at 3:39AM, and the House went home without voting.

So now it's all gone.

The funniest part? This started because Cook County tried to grab the tax early. They knew a built stadium would pay $53M a year. Now they get under $4M on a vacant lot. No jobs, no buildout, no new anything.

Congrats on fighting for scraps and losing the whole prize.

Pritzker: they're "an $8.5B valued business" that doesn't need propping up.

But be smart for a second. Almost every NFL city throws in public money for a stadium. Not charity. The return is real. Tourism, hotels, restaurants, jobs, game days, property tax on a huge development. The math works.

Indiana did the math. While Illinois sat on it for years, Indiana passed a bill in months, put up $1B, and took the team.

And the Bears took a worse deal to get there. In Illinois they were going to own their stadium. In Indiana they rent it from the state. A team that wanted to build its own home gave up ownership just to escape Chicago.

Nobody won but Indiana. The Bears lost their stadium. Illinois lost the team, the $2B, and $53M a year in taxes.

Pritzker after they left: "I wasn't willing to give up billions of dollars of taxpayer money to give it to a billionaire-owned family or team."

There it is. "Billionaire-owned."

That's how Democrats talk about any business right before they run it out of town. Call them a billionaire, act like you're saving working families, take a victory lap while the tax base drives across the state line.

Meanwhile they're running the whole state into the ground. And you already know how this ends. You're living in it.

Pensions are $143B in the hole, worst in the country and not close. You pay $6,285 a year in property taxes, double the $2,969 national average, for a city that's $1.15B in the red. The mayor called its finances "the point of no return."

When you run things this badly, you sell what's left.

They leased the parking meters for 75 years to Morgan Stanley and a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi. Took $1.15B and burned through it in two years. The investors already made it all back, with 58 years left to collect.

Sold the Skyway. Sold the downtown garages. Every asset that made money, gone for one check.

But a fixed property tax rate for a team that's been here 106 years? That's "propping up billionaires."

Companies are leaving. Boeing for Virginia. Caterpillar for Texas. Citadel for Miami. In 2023 alone Illinois lost 56,000 people and $6B in income to other states. The ones who left earned a third more than the ones who moved in.

Indiana didn't outbid anyone. AAA credit, 16 years straight. A $676M surplus. Fourth-lowest debt per person in the country. They just weren't a disaster.

Illinois could have collected $53M a year. It chose zero. Ignore all the bad management but make sure to stick it to those evil, pesky billionaires.

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

🚨 California Passed "The Stop Nick Shirley Act":
This week the California Assembly passed AB 2624. This bill will criminalize investigative journalism involving the immigrant population. It would have made it illegal to expose the Somali "Learing" center if it were in California or the Armenian hospice fraud in LA if they claimed "reasonable fear."

The bill protects "immigration support services providers," which means services provided to immigrants, including health care. It has been proven that millions, potentially billions, of dollars in fraud has taken place in "immigrant support services” which includes nonprofits and NGOs the state funds.

California is trying to make it harder to expose fraud and scare individuals from investigating it as they could be forced and sued to remove the video, forced to pay attorney fees, and ordered to pay a minimum of $4,000 in damages.

This bill was created by Mia Bonta (the attorney general's wife). She has made 4 separate versions of this bill because each version violates the 1st Amendment and is extremely unconstitutional.

Plain and simple, California politicians need the fraud to continue because they depend on the fraud to push their agendas. END ALL THE FRAUD.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

She resigned because her husband has cancer.

This is why no one trusts the media.

[OVO Sound @OVOSound]

ICEMAN ICEMAN ICEMAN

[Kyle Becker @kylenabecker]

You might say casting a 5'1", 105 pound girl pretending to be a boy as one of the mightiest warriors in Greek lore is going to be this film's Achilles' Heel

[rich @rich_roberts]

Rob Manfred’s legacy, right here. Four games, four platforms, four different booths calling games, a goddamn treasure map to figure out where to go and how to watch. Great work everyone.

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

You know what really bugs me these days? We can't own anything anymore. Everything is a subscription. Adobe, Notion, Spotify. You don't just buy things once, you keep paying every month. You literally have to pay for everything forever. Isn't anyone else bothered by this?

[Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes]

Amazon is using large Sunbelt Rentals Generators to charge their electric delivery vehicles

These generators are powered by diesel fuel

So they’re using diesel fuel, to charge their electric vehicles “to Go Green”

Someone make it make sense

[A Gene Robinson @AlBuffalo2nite]

California Dems just passed the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’ - literally named after the journalist exposing billions in immigrant-services fraud.

Mia Bonta’s bill lets them sue anyone posting videos that ‘harass’ their grift.

Same party in Minnesota has blocked an independent fraud investigator for over a year - even after the Senate passed it 60-7.

Democrats don’t want accountability.

They want the fraud machine protected while your tax dollars disappear.

This is calculated, quiet corruption. They rewrote the rules to stay in the dark.

Wake up.

#AStoneGroove

[Tim Burchett @timburchett]

National media you missed this.

[Nick shirley @nickshirleyy]

You tried to paint me as a pervert for exposing fraud, and as a result radical leftists started trying to dox me and send death threats, wanting to kill me.

Now you are taking credit for “leading the charge” on the fraud. Are you serious?

You are the fraud.

[Bad Hombre @Badhombre]

Wait a minute! Gavin Newsom said none of this was happening, mocked Nick Shirley for traveling to California to investigate and expose it, and called CMS administrator Dr. Oz “racist” against Armenians for even suggesting there was hospice fraud in Los Angeles.

[Sam Roberts @RealSamRoberts]

Having Pat McAfee, Jason Kelce, Bert Kreischer and Kevin Hart at The Masters is the epitome of ESPN's cultural degradation of sports. Augusta National should be the ultimate place of dignity and reverence and these ignominious dullards debase it with their sophomorish hijinks.

[Xbox Nostalgia @Xbox_Nostalgia]

EA Sports: NHL 2004 (2003)

[v(?) @Vatira5]

Je pense qu’il est temps que les choses changent à propos de Rocket League et d’Epic Games. Je n’ai pas parlé depuis quelque temps, mais la situation du jeu est dramatique. Ce qui fait vivre Rocket League, c’est l’esport, de par son intensité, sa facilité de compréhension, mais avant tout le niveau individuel incroyable de tous les joueurs professionnels.

Vous savez où je veux en venir : bots et DDoS. Nous avons dû créer des serveurs Discord pour essayer de jouer de manière compétitive, mais ce n’est pas la solution miracle. C’est compliqué à gérer, pas facile d’accès, puis évidemment nous ne pouvons pas rassembler tous les joueurs du monde entier.

Le problème étant que le niveau global des joueurs régresse et que notre temps de jeu est divisé par deux ou par trois. Epic Games, faites quelque chose tout de suite.

À tous mes amis créateurs de contenu : ce n’est pas normal pour vous non plus d’avoir à subir ça. Les gens ne regardent plus Rocket League, les streamers perdent potentiellement leur communauté et peuvent perdre leur métier. Il est temps de réaliser que nous ne pouvons plus attendre, sinon Rocket League finira comme Rocket Racing.

Rassemblons la communauté et formons qu'un. #RLNEEDCHANGES

[Bonchie @bonchieredstate]

This is one of the worst examples of the press pushing outright propaganda for an enemy I’ve ever seen.

Not just the headline. The article is even worse. Truly disgusting stuff.

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

A powerful scene in the Odyssey happens when Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca after twenty years of war and wandering.

You would expect the story to end with celebration, with the hero coming home, the family reunited, and order restored.

Homer does something far stranger.

Odysseus arrives disguised as a beggar, because Athena warns him that the palace has been taken over by more than a hundred suitors who have been living there for years, eating his food, drinking his wine, and pressuring his wife Penelope to marry one of them.

They believe Odysseus is dead and in their minds the kingdom is already theirs.

So the king of Ithaca walks through his own halls dressed in rags while the men stealing his house sit comfortably at his tables. They mock him, throw scraps at him, and one of them even strikes him, and Odysseus takes it. That is the remarkable part, because the same man who blinded the Cyclops and survived twenty years of disasters now stands quietly while strangers insult him in his own home. Homer tells us his heart burns inside his chest and that he wants to attack them immediately, yet he restrains himself and waits.

Instead of striking, Odysseus studies the room carefully. He counts the men, watches their habits, and quietly observes which servants remain loyal and which have betrayed him. The hero of the Odyssey does something most people cannot do, which is delay revenge until the moment is right.

Eventually Penelope announces a contest and brings out Odysseus’ great bow, declaring that she will marry the man who can string it and shoot an arrow through twelve axe heads lined up in a row. One by one the suitors try and fail, because none of them can even bend the bow. Then the beggar asks for a turn. The suitors laugh at first, but the bow is eventually handed to him.

Odysseus takes it in his hands and strings it effortlessly. Homer says the sound of the bowstring tightening rings through the hall like the note of a swallow. Then he places an arrow on the string and sends it cleanly through all twelve axe heads.

In that moment the beggar disappears. Odysseus turns the bow toward the suitors and reveals who he is.

What follows is one of the most brutal scenes in Greek literature. The doors are sealed and the suitors realize too late that they are trapped inside the hall. Odysseus, his son Telemachus, and two loyal servants begin killing them one by one. There is no escape, no mercy, and no negotiation. The men who spent years consuming another man’s house die inside it.

It is a violent ending, but Homer wants you to understand something important. The real danger to Odysseus was never just the monsters and storms on the long journey home. It was the possibility that someone else might take his place while he was gone. When Odysseus finally returns, he reminds everyone in Ithaca of a simple truth: a man’s home is not truly his unless he is willing to fight for it.