And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose.

  It's Thursday, for what that's worth. I really don't have much to roll with, so we'll just try to fill the space. As we do. Ever since I got the idea for this blog's purpose, nothing's been banging to be written about. Y'all help a poor boy out, huh? There's got to be a bit of esoteric knowledge someone would like more information on.

 Anyhow. A couple of things come to mind. One, there seems to be an issue restaurant owners and managers are having finding workers. They can't get people to work for them, either because they've found something else to do that pays better and/or is more fulfilling, or because they're living good enough on the stimulus check that's a couple of months old. They can't figure out why people don't want to come back to these jobs, be it working in a kitchen, waiting tables, or cleaning dishes.

 Well, for one, they're shit jobs. I've spent the bulk of my adult life working in kitchens and even at the best of times, for someone who actually enjoys cooking, it's a goddamn miserable job. The actual chefs I've known have told me some horror stories about putting in 80 hours a week, but even working a normal 40 is killer. You're on your feet for at least six hours with little or no break, it's hot and you burn yourself no matter how careful you are, and if you cut anything you will wind up slicing a finger open.

 Furthermore, health insurance is almost non-existent even with the ACA. If your boss doesn't shell out for it, it's still probably more than a worker sees each paycheck. And forget about taking days off if you get sick, most bosses aren't down with that at all. And that's in the best of times, not when we're trying to wrestle down a pandemic that could, if not kill you, could permanently scar you if you don't get quality health care. Don't bet on it.

 However, it seems to be beyond the pale to maybe look at raising wages and paying someone enough to live on. People say "these aren't meant to be careers," but I really don't think everyone is interested in a "career." Some people want to spend their free time hunting or playing ball or building guitars or knitting or running RPG's, and the job they hold down just keeps the power on and their bellies full. Hell, most of the time I was a cook it was because I was trying to break into writing somehow or another.

 Look, y'all, the paradigm has changed. Last year caused a lot of scales to fall from the collective eyes. "The way things work" just doesn't work. Capitalism or socialism, it really doesn't matter, things have to change and if employers want people to do the work that makes them money, they're going to have to give a little more than they used to.

 When FDR brought forth the New Deal and when LBJ created the Great Society, they were reacting to circumstances wherein had they left stuff alone, the lower classes would have started slitting throats. People want to claim either were socialist heroes/villains, but that's what it boiled down to. I really believe we at that point now. Billionaires made out like bandits during the pandemic while most of us were wondering if we'd get through the month. Shit's going to have to change.

 Speaking of shit that must change, a kid named Adam Toledo was shot by Chicago police last month. He was 13. At the time, the cops claimed he had a gun and they had no choice. Turns out, the released bodycam showed that not only did he not have a gun but that he had his hands up when he was shot. A cop tries to do something to save the kid's life and he's shown crying at his failure as his bodycam was shut off.

 So there's that there then. In the wake of George Floyd and Daunte Wright, we're still having the discussion over whether or not something needs to be done about police shooting people. One thing that continues to amaze me is how many people are, not to put too fine a point on things, are completely fine with police having the carte blanche to shoot and kill whoever they want whenever they feel like it while rarely suffering any consequences if said shooting victim wasn't actually doing anything that a reasonable person would agree that was worth shooting.

 A lot of it is racism. This is a racist country and we really hate Black people as a country. We're not disputing that nor do we wish to downplay it. However, what's notable to me is how many people would be fine with such behavior being done to them or their loved ones. Think about that, they would be fine with being shot and killed - or their loved one - by police, even if it was a mistake. 

 Whether they really mean it or not, that's what they live by. They think that's how society should be and how authority should treat the rest of us. I don't know what to think about all that nor what to do about it. The same people who howl about the First Amendment are fine with Their President/Congress shutting down speech or limiting the ability to protest.

 That's built into the American character, as part of our natural psyche as thinking we're right about everything or that the story's all about us. I really don't know what we can do about that.

I might live a thousand years before I know what that means.

 Running late today, my apologies. I stayed up fairly late last night doing my Actual Paying Work and, of course, defending humanity from alien invasions. Overslept this morning, and by the time I was done editing and brushing up the APW to send it to the Chief, it was past 3 p.m. I wasn't feeling my sharpest, so I decided to take a nap and here we are.

 Anyhow. I've been keeping an interested eye on these "autonomous zones" that have popped up around the country in the wake of the nation-wide protests against police brutality. Of course, there's the first well-organized one in Seattle, and because there was a mass walkout of police in Atlanta to protest that one guy getting fired and charged with murder for shooting Rayshard Brooks in the back as he was running away. I'm not sure if that counts, though. One was started on the northwest side of Portland yesterday evening but apparently the cops shut it down fairly quickly. It was set up outside the mayor's house, apparently, so it makes sense the law would be Johnny-On-The-Spot there. One's trying to kick up at the Capitol Square in Nashville - which the protesters have renamed "Ida B. Wells Square" - but the Tennessee governor's giving dire forecasts should it become a permanent thing.

 It should be noted a lot of this revolves around how the cops are reacting to the protesters. In Portland, for example, they cut that to the quick, while the thing in Seattle is flourishing basically because the local precinct emptied out the first day. No cops, no worries. In Atlanta, it's more a case of the "blue flu" by petulant po-pop even though Garrett Rolfe has turned himself in. They're not protesting or walking out on the job so much as a bunch of them all turned up sick this morning, amazingly enough. Given one of the issues the protesters have is the out-of-control militarization of the police that's both dangerous to the people and police while being more or less useless for dealing with crime, if Seattle or anyone really wanted to wipe folks out, they could.

 And that's part of the problem, really. Full disclosure, I've never had any real problem with the police. When I was 18, I was detained for four hours because a cop thought I was a guy selling drugs at a popular teen hangout area in Tupelo. Once in New Orleans I was pulled over because I was on the Westbank after midnight giving a black co-worker a ride home, and apparently that's suspicious behavior there. I was shocked, my co-worker and boss (who I had to call for the cop to believe us) were not. More naive me.

 The handful of times I called the police for assistance, I got the distinct impression they resented me cutting into their donut time. Granted, nothing I called for was all that interesting. A broken window or a stolen tag, little stuff like that, and the only reason I called was to have the official paperwork to deal with insurance. Nevertheless, every episode ended with me feeling like they thought me expecting them to do their job was a bit presumptuous. Beyond that, I've got a cousin who used to be a cop and I've had pleasant evenings hanging out and drinking with cops. I wouldn't call any of them "friends," but there you go.

So, I'm fairly ambivalent about cops and having them in general. I understand why some sort of order-keeping force might be useful in a large, varied society. I've generally gotten along with them when I've had to be around them for extended periods of time, but I generally get along with everyone. I've seen with my own two eyes cops abuse power and actively harass the black people they're supposed to be "protecting and serving". And I've spent enough time in the journalism trenches to hear all sorts of horror stories, some told by the cops themselves.

 I understand what the push to "defund the police" means and I don't know if it's an example of bad branding. That small-town police departments the size of Tupelo have twice the riot gear they have as cops as well as armored personnel carriers is ridiculous. This has been an issue since the '90s, as police budgets are often tied to how much they spend. If they don't spend all their allotted one year, they get less the next.

 And there is something in the whole "warrior" mentality we're seeing in police that desperately needs to be nipped in the bud. That they're using the Punisher's logo, despite Gerry Conway's objections, is worrisome. That they see the people they're supposed to be "protecting and serving" as "the enemy" is, well... we've seen how that works out. For me, I don't trust people are packing heat and that includes the fuzz. In my perfect world, most police work would consist of traffic control and keeping the flow of public moving smoothly, & dealing with crimes after the fact. That cops are sent on wellness checks or to deal with potentially suicidal individuals with no more training than they get - usually six weeks at most - is just not working.

 I don't have answers to fix the problem with out-of-control police brutality. I have told the aforementioned cousin that if the police want to repair relations with the community, especially the black part, stop treating black folks like criminals before the fact and especially stop shooting them whenever you feel the least bit threatened. You don't make yourself look better or trustworthy or worthy of respect when you amp up the behavior that got people protesting in the first place.

 But I'll tell you what most unnerves me about this whole deal. When reading about the Atlanta walkout or the autonomous zone in Seattle, I keep seeing conservatives gleeful at the idea of chaos raining down on the ungrateful city dwellers and actively hoping for a city in flames because it won't bend the knee to police violence. I don't believe either Seattle or Atlanta had a particular uptick in violence, but right-wingers are not only convinced  it's inevitable they're actively looking forward to it and encouraging it.

 The same people keep saying society is in danger of collapsing, but I got to say if this is the society they want, I'm fine with it collapsing. If you're cheering the idea of people being crushed under governmental heel because they don't agree that they should be subjugated and second class, you are the bad guy. Full stop.

The more I learn, the less I want to know.

 At some point during the night, someone planted the seed in Trump's empty noggin that Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man that cracked his skull on the concrete after a Buffalo cop pushed him over, not only faked the whole scenario but he's also an agent of AntiFa. By the time I got up this morning, not even 8 a.m., the hooting morons that make up not just the Base but the bulk of the Republican party is either considering it gospel truth, a reasonable possibility, or that since he was a liberal he deserved it anyway.

 No, really,  I've seen the pictures with circles drawn around what the nuts think is a hidden hose that pumped the fake blood that looked to spill out of his ear. Even dumber, he was apparently using some sort of James Bond doo-dad to drop an EMP on the cops' walkie talkies. No, really. And this is after the Buffalo DA has noted Gugino's serious head injuries and there have been pictures of him in intensive care.

 This is coming off the NYPD police commissioner - who makes $99 grand a year - tried to claim that concrete samples were evidence of AntiFa mixing cement in the ice cream. It's also coming off the Minnesota fuzz admitting they'd been slashing protesters' tires and a cop's wife admitting she blamed a fake home invasion on Black Lives Matter. And all this is being taken seriously by the Powers That Be as well as the Corporate Press.

 Speaking of them, the whole "Defund The Police" has got them in a serious tizzy. Liberals and leftists are arguing back and forth that it's poor branding or some other goofy shit, all the while actually pretending the Republicans will act in good faith on this regardless of what's meant by "defunding the police" or that the CP won't run with an easy, juicy story instead of actually putting some journalism to work and possibly rocking the boat of the Status Quo.

 And it's already been denied by Joe Biden. There's absolutely no reason to be having this discussion in this manner, but here we are. And the real silly "leftists" are losing their absolute shit about Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats kneeling while wearing a Kente cloth. This is two-fold. It gives them the opportunity to pretend to be outraged and shocked that politicians are acting like politicians, but also gives them - generally middle-class white bourgeoisie folks who'll be fine regardless how November 2020 turns out - an excellent opportunity to ignore what is in all actually a fairly decent police reform bill.

 Is it perfect? No. Was that pandering? Yes. That's politics, baby, and the extreme naivete and ignorance from these clowns is driving me up the wall. It's way, way too much stupid for a poor boy with a bad case of XCOM head to wake up to. So, yeah, this is another day in our ongoing experiment on "writing today's nonsense before my nap". So far, so good, more or less.

 That being said, I think I'm either running out of irritation at the laziness and stupidity of humanity or my ratty sleeping schedule is catching up with me. I've made word count, so I think I'll tie this off. Perhaps I'll come back to it after my nap. But if I can leave you with anything, let it be this: listen, think and shut the hell up. Just because you have a megaphone doesn't mean you have to tell everyone you have nothing interesting to say.