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The Independent Variable

Posts on page 19

šŸŽ¤ Ye, Formerly Kanye West, Tells VF About His WSJ Apology Advertisement

Vanity Fair

ā€œThis is not the first time that Ye has tried to apologize. In December 2023, he posted a brief apology on Instagram, written in Hebrew and directed to ā€œthe Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions.ā€ People questioned the timing; his album Vultures 1 was about to be released in February. ā€œI regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change,ā€ he wrote, asserting that he is ā€œnot antisemitic.ā€ā€

I used to be one of the biggest Kanye fans growing up outside of Chicago just as he started to take off with The Workout Plan and Jesus Walks. I still think MBDTF is probably the greatest hip-hop album ever made, but I haven’t listened to a single song from him since 2019. An apology right before a new album drops means absolutely nothing to me. I’ll check back in in three years and see if he’s actually putting his money where his mouth is or if he goes off the rails again. And I get the brain trauma stuff, but the shit he did—and the people around him who enabled him—does not deserve anyone’s forgiveness. Not a chance in hell I’m putting a penny in his pocket.

🧊 ICE Agents Will Join Olympics Delegation in Italy. Many Italians are Angry.

NY Times

Mr. Sala [the Mayor of Milan] added: ā€œBringing to Milan a militia which distinguished itself — this is not my opinion — with criminal acts, which kills, which enters in the homes of American citizens without authorization, I do not think that that is a good idea.ā€

This is insane. The Olympic Committee and Italian government should ban America from the Olympic Games—and other countries should boycott the World Cup in North America (as should the US team). An untrained and unlawful unit of thugs and murderers shouldn’t be welcome anywhere. And we know they are untrained because they are hiring people based on six-minute interviews and without background checks—not to mention the evidence we can see with our eyes as they escalate situations and are overly trigger happy.

šŸ”« Videos of Shooting Appear to Contradict Federal Officials

NYT

ā€œAppear to Contradictā€ really?! The videos flat out prove the government is lying. You can clearly see him holding a phone before he’s taken to the ground by a group of gestapo. Then one of the thugs pulls the gun away from Alex Jeffrey Pretti’s holster and runs away with it while he continues to be beaten on by the others, moments before they murder him—while he’s on the ground, defenseless— in cold blood.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK ALL OF THIS. I’m at a loss for words at this point. There are just too many hypocritical contradictions and lies and travesties happening every single day. If you’re not livid and losing your mind right now, if you’re okay with people dying so the rich can get tax breaks and the poor can lose their food stamps and they can kick a few brown people out of the country, then you can go fuck yourself.

Why is it this country has deported millions of people over the years, but now it requires warrantless searches, requiring people to have their papers, kidnapping children, deporting citizens, and murder to do the job now?

šŸ“š Story/Day/Year

One Word at a Time

If you know anything about me, you know I love a good story—so much so I started my own short fiction litmag, but that’s neither here nor there. Michael Staniforth is doing a review of a different short story every day of the year and it’s been a joy to follow along.

🤔 Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize

NY Times

ā€œConsidering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peaceā€

This is pure insanity. What a childish, insecure, petty old man. The narcissism and selfishness to try to take over a country for what you think is a personal slight is next level. And as every sane person knows, it wasn’t a slight because he doesn’t deserve jack shit; this only goes to prove that even more, along with every other action he’s taken in the last decade.