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.

Lord, I pity the mother and father when the kids move away.

  I'm letting the day slip away from me. Unfortunately, I don't know if I have anything interesting to talk about. Listen to more Amazing Rhythm Aces, I guess.

 It's been a fairly active one, actively. I went to see my doctor for the regular check-up. I skipped the usual one back in March due to COVID-19 kicking into high gear. Completely overestimating the intelligence and diligence of My Fellow Americans, I thought we'd have a decent hand on the whole thing by June, July at the latest. Silly me.

 Anyhow, the visit went well. Waiting on some blood work to get done - I'm on Lithium and that apparently can do a number on your kidney - everything's about the same. In fact, it turns out I've lost five pounds since the last time I saw a doctor. I go see the Psych Doctor next month and I reckon I should make a date with the Therapist, too. Need to make my insurance premium if nothing else.

 I also bought me a new laptop. Well, ordered one and paid for it, anyway. BestBuy, for what it's worth. Sometimes I use NewEgg, but I got a pretty sweet rig for a cheaper price from the store. I really didn't need it. My MacBook is fried but my PC works fine. Still, I wanted a laptop if just because sitting in this chair is hell on my back. In any event, if we ever get out from under this COVID-19 business and don't let Trump destroy the country in the process, I'd like to do some more traveling. I don't know where I'd go, but that's not really important.

 I bought a gaming laptop. I figure it'll be just as fine as this PC for writing and web crawling, so I can write it off on my taxes. Win-win, all around. It cost more than a regular laptop, of course, but it's the money I've made from the Actual Paying Gigs, so I figured I'd treat myself.  I was kicking around the idea of getting a console, and maybe I'll do that with the next savings.

 That's about it for me, really. I'm still pretty bummed about the Breonna Taylor verdict as well as the ugliness it kicked off last night in Louisville. Apparently, two cops were shot and I'm not going to joke about that. It's just going to get worse, especially when stuff like this goes on. Long story short, a 13-year-old kid with Asperger's syndrome freaks out when the cop tells him to freeze and runs. So, of course, the cop shot him 11 times in the back.

 Linden Cameron is his name and he's in intensive care. Seems his mom called 9/11 because the kid was having a meltdown and tried to tell the police he was scared of cops. This happened in Utah, and there are actually recordings of the cops at the scene arguing whether or not to go in the house. But this is the outcome. There was some question that he had a gun and some question if it was an actual gun instead of a BB gun or pellet gun or just a toy gun because the kid is 13, for Christ's sake. No weapon was found.

 Fellow white people, when you disparage what happened to George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Philado Castielle or any of the black folks who get shot down by the cops because they didn't follow all of the rules, this is the world you're demanding. This is the society you want. This is what you're saying is okay to happen to you if the cops decide you're not following orders quick or completely enough.

 But if that's the world you want to live in, hey, fine by me, I guess. I'm out in the boonies. But stop acting so surprised everyone else is sort of tired of this and thinks it should change. Stop acting surprised because they decide to fight back despite the costs. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

We didn't appreciate Cub Koda enough when we had him.

 I have some Actual Paying Work to do tonight, so I'm not going to spend much time here. Initially, anyway. I also finally let Windows update itself, and damn, if that didn't take hours. So let's lay something down for continuity's sake and perhaps I'll come back to it.

 I'm not going to lie, though. I had something earlier today, but it's gone now. It's just as well as it was a pretty dour outlook on things. On the whole, I am not hopeful we're past the "things will get worse before..." of the game yet, not by a long shot.

 For one, the city of Louisville has declared a state of emergency because they're days away from giving the verdict on the cops that murdered Breonna Taylor. I really don't think that bodes well. Worse, one of the killer cops posted an email telling other officers to do "what they need to do" to the protestors that he called "thugs," claiming everything they did the night they killed Taylor was legal and moral. Sure, which is why the initial report was full of lies and the DA tried to lean on Taylor's ex-boyfriend - the guy they were actually looking for - to implicate her without success.

 Putting aside the issue of police brutality running rampant in this country, everything I've seen shows that these cops are, at the very best, guilty of being sloppy with who they decide who needs killing. Furthermore, everything the city has done, even up to the settlement paid out to Taylor's family, tells me they know she was killed because some lunkheaded cops couldn't be bothered to do the job properly.

 People are still defending this, either saying that it's just a regrettable but necessary accident or outright lying about Taylor to make her look guilty and, thus, worthy of extrajudicial execution. And that's the thing that really bums me out the most, that there are so many people in this country that prides itself on rugged individualism are so eager to bend a knee to authority.

 I don't know if I can in good conscience argue that we don't need some sort of peace-keeping or law-enforcement force. Even if it's just to give out speeding tickets and take paperwork for insurance when someone's car gets broken into, there's a necessity. They don't protect and I think recent events have shown us that there are better ways of dealing with people in the midst of a mental episode that sending in a couple thick-necked, heavily armed, poorly trained dingbats.

 My ex worked for the public defender in New Orleans as a social worker and she regularly went to neighborhoods the police wouldn't. All 5'4" of her, and it wasn't because she was especially brave or fearless or badass. She was doing her job and while cops have their jobs, is there any question why people, especially black people, see that the police's job, whatever it is, isn't concerned with their health?

 But this turns out to a bridge too far for far too many people, especially white people. They're fine with living in a country that keeps its thumb on certain people, even if it erodes their own rights. I shouldn't be shocked at this, I know. Back after 9/11, the average American rube couldn't wait to curtail civil liberties at the government's behest for an ounce of security. All the free-speech warriors of today were fine with "free speech zones" at the 2004 Republican National Convention just like they're fine with the crackdown on protesting in Louisville and other places.

 And this isn't a partisan thing. Someone on Twitter took my condemnation of conservative thought in America as possibly choosing one side over the other, but this isn't that. In a sane culture, the Democrats would be the conservative-middle party, but that's really not important. Americans in general are fine with curtailing the Constitutionally given rights they claim to adore. They'll behave themselves, after all, so why should they care?

 Okay, that's plenty. I'm going to get to work and hope to be in a better move tomorrow. It springs eternal, they say.

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.

I don't need no proof, 'cause that's the truth, and I'll drink to that.

 Man, it has been a day, hasn't it? Protests and riots across the country, the president trying to bring the government hammer down on a private company because his feelings are hurt, and the sneaking suspicion that "reopening the country" this soon wasn't a great idea. One upside is the forces of old and evil are sounding dumber than shit in trying to defend what obviously isn't going to work anymore.

 I really don't know where to start. Momma and I had a rather heavy discussion about the George Floyd murder and the resulting chaos that's popped up as a result. Make no mistake, Momma is Mississippi through and through, and one thing about Mississippi is this state digs on some authority. Look at that walking thumb that's the mayor of Petal for another example. Regardless, she's heartsick over this man's murder and understands the rage and anger behind the rioters. She doesn't understand why they would destroy businesses that employ them, but she also doesn't grok that most of those businesses don't pay them enough to live on anyway.

 What she had problems with, however, was my stance that the cops in general don't deserve the benefit of the doubt, and I won't budge on that. They do not. They've spent the last 20 years militarizing and deciding we were the enemy, telling us their safety is more important than our lives, and claiming that they don't even need to know the law. All body cameras and social media has done up until now is show how guilty they are and how little they care about how their actions affect the communities they're supposed to "protect and serve," especially when those communities are black.

 For me, it's like that old Chris Rock bit. I ain't saying people burning down a Target is right. I'm just saying I understand where that anger and frustration is coming from. If nothing else - nothing else - the recent COVID-19 business should have shown us that, without any sort of doubt, the Powers That Be do not care if the people that make their wealth live or die, nor do they care how healthy or happy those folks are. Target pays starvation wages and the owners are billionaires many times over. If the people in that community thought it was worth something, maybe they wouldn't have pulled it down.

 I do think there's something different about this one, especially coming so soon after the egregious subverting of the law we're supposed to follow in the Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor situations. In both cases, the murders were ignored by the legal establishment of the respective areas, almost to the point where they condoned it. Both took months of screaming in the faces of authority to make anyone even look ashamed. This one, well... the guy having his hands in his pockets while kneeling on Floyd's neck as someone filmed him, he had to know that wouldn't go well.

 Protests are popping up all over the country. Someone in Denver actively tried to run some dude over, and people on Twitter are trying to defend it. I do wonder, however, if we're not seeing how the whole "Twitter isn't real life" thing plays out. The mayor of Petal got his ass nailed to the wall by his townsfolk and trying to claim they're all AntiFa. Y'all, there is no AntiFa in a Mississippi town of 10,000. There just isn't.

 Maybe a little more ambiguous is this bit about Trump trying to use government muscle to censor Twitter because they had the audacity to add a link to one of his wacky claims. They didn't even fact check him, much less censor him. They added a link that said "for more information". It was the very least they could do, and he throws the biggest fit we've seen yet. A hundred thousand dead, 40 million on unemployment, and he doesn't budge. Twitter doesn't kiss his ass and he's ready to rain down hell.

 The conservative argument is, apparently, that Twitter shouldn't be considered a publisher rather than a platform and what they did was censorship. The latter argument is obviously stupid and silly, nothing more than another example of Trump's persecution complex and the reason conservatives worship the ground he walks on. The former, though, I wonder.

 I really don't see Twitter as a publisher any more than the telephone line is. It is true, however, that technology has moved too fast for the law to keep up on this note and there are serious questions to be asked. That being said, since the death of Net Neutrality - another thing conservatives have a boner for - it was probably inevitable that things were headed this way. Above all else, Twitter is a profit-oriented business, and anyone who's trying to assign noble intentions to it is whistling Dixie writ large.

 One of the running tropes of cyberpunk is that in a world where corporations control all government, official press and whatall, there's always an underground sort of internet that's For The People. What a lot of science fiction writers never assumed, though, was that the Harvard-educated trust fund squirts who have the cash to develop this sort of technology would be interested in anything but getting their hands on more filthy lucre.

 You'd think after watching Bill Gates for the past 40 years, we'd learn. But no, that's not how it works. Here we are.

Friday, December 27, 2019

 As we head towards what will be the very last weekend of this decade... wait, is that right? Does a new decade start on the '00 or the '01, I never can keep that straight. Anyhow, this time next week it'll be 2020 & may the Lord have mercy on all our souls.