Slightly Delayed Post for 4/12/26

This week, a $40/hour creative writing project was available to me on the AI training platform that's my sole source of income, and I missed it to go to a city council meeting that I could have watched online. I regret that. I was there to express my opposition to the ICE detention center, but I didn't even make a comment because I didn't bother to figure out how city council meetings work and sign up to make a comment beforehand. That's life, if you define life as me making unnecessary mistakes. Anyway, the city council already opposes the ICE detention center, so this was more about encouraging it not to back down. At least eight people expressed that sentiment.

A fat redneck stereotype expressed a different sentiment. He started off sarcastically thanking the council for cutting off water to the warehouse even though ICE agents can shower at home and bring bottled water, and then he went on an unhinged rant about four "illegals" who committed violent crimes in places that aren't Utah, which somehow bothered him even though he obviously voted for a serial rapist who was best friends with a child sex trafficker. I swear to God, one of the Hispanic council members left the room during his rant. I was gratified when a math teacher diverted from her prepared comment to explain to him (and any other high school dropouts who might have been in the room) how percentages work. After the meeting, I flipped him off because punching him in his dumbass racist teeth was illegal. (Yes, he could have flattened me alone, but I wasn't alone.0 Then my keys, loosened from emptying my pockets for the security check before the meeting, fell out. And he said, "You dropped your keys, bud." So that was humiliating. Now I've increased my credibility by sharing this humiliating anecdote instead of casting myself as the triumphant hero of the situation.

On Saturday, I attended the Salt Lake County Democratic convention as a delegate, which is something that I've never been interested in doing but did anyway because fighting fascism can't be fun and games all the time. I had friends there, and I picked up a decent amount of free food and candy, so those two things salvaged the event from being as boring as General Conference. I went to a dance protest at the ICE detention center afterward because fighting fascism is fun and games sometimes. Something like eighteen cops were there to flush our tax dollars down the toilet. They sat in their darkened vans and watched us for two hours, and then, as soon as the guy with the speakers left, they pulled him over and cited him for an expired registration, disorderly conduct, and being too loud for this neighborhood of empty warehouses. It's all very obviously a bullshit attempt to intimidate us, squelch our First Amendment rights, and protect the fascist secret police, and of course we're not putting up with it. Also, we just found out that the city considers drawing with chalk on the sidewalk a Class B misdemeanor. I have no words.

Hungary just ousted its far-right authoritarian president, Viktor Orbán, who pleasantly surprised me by not rigging the election or refusing to concede. His successor, Péter Magyar, is center-right, which would make him a Democrat in the US. His party, Tisza, also won a supermajority in parliament that will help him reverse the damage to democracy caused by his predecessor. Orbán has spent his sixteen years in office patiently dismantling the checks on his power. Trump openly admires him and has been trying to speedrun the same strategy, with less success. Trump sent JD Vance to campaign for him recently, having somehow failed to notice that nobody in the world like JD Vance. Also, like Trump, Orbán is an ally of Putin who's blocked aid to Ukraine and caused turmoil throughout Europe. This is a great day for a lot of people and a bad day for some very bad people. Orbán is a very bad person - but again, he did concede the election on the same night. Trump still hasn't conceded the election from over five years ago. Trump is a worse person, and I'm just grateful he has a lot less time (both in office and on this Earth).