Joe Walsh

I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁

So true!
And omnipresent, from Gunsmoke and Adam-12 when I was a kid to Chicago PD and Rookie today.
Not to mention all those "He had to go beyond the law, because the bad guys were just so bad!" shows and movies explicitly supporting excessive force, extrajudicial killings, and the rest.

No cynicism needed. The Supreme Court has held that the police have no duty to protect us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
 
It's taken me a long time to realize the truth. Police write up reports for insurance companies and (selectively) police our behavior.  Above all, they protect the wealthy and powerful (and their property) from the rest of us.
 
It's not an accident as far as I can tell; the system seems to be set up that way. Heck, when we peaceably assemble in front of a supreme court judge's home, look what happens. Or when we assemble to protest legitimate concerns such as elites shipping our jobs overseas (one-sided trade agreements) or police summarily executing citizens with impunity. But when a murderer enters a school to kill children, the police make room for him and start arresting the parents who ask them why they're not saving the children. And then they lie about it. They apparently lie constantly, seemingly reflexively, about every aspect of their jobs. And they get away with it, are given almost complete impunity for their behavior toward us.
 
It seems pretty clear to me what the police are there for, and unfortunately it's not what decades of copaganda TV shows had led me to believe.

No cynicism needed. The Supreme Court has held that the police have no duty to protect us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/justices-rule-police-do-not-have-a-constitutional-duty-to-protect.html
 
It's taken me a long time to realize the truth. Police write up reports for insurance companies and (selectively) police our behavior.  Above all, they protect the wealthy and powerful (and their property) from the rest of us.
 
It's not an accident as far as I can tell; the system seems to be set up that way. Heck, when we peaceably assemble in front of a supreme court judge's home, look what happens. Or when we assemble to protest legitimate concerns such as elites shipping our jobs overseas (one-sided trade agreements) or police summarily executing citizens with impunity. But when a murderer enters a school to kill children, the police make room for him and start arresting the parents who ask them why they're not saving the children. And then they lie about it. They apparently lie constantly, seemingly reflexively, about every aspect of their jobs. And they get away with it, are given almost complete impunity for their behavior toward us.
 
It seems pretty clear to me what the police are there for, and unfortunately it's not what decades of copaganda TV shows had led me to believe.

Also all the genuflecting most (though thankfully not all) true crime shows/podcasts/books give the police.  Hell, COPS is a major culprit of copaganda...
 
...and who produces it?  FOX.

You will notice that the old motto of "To Serve and Protect" does not say who cops serve and protect. A cynical person might say it's the ruling class. And that though police are part of a wider "pacification project" to keep the wider populace sufficiently docile that they do not trouble their betters, a certain degree of random violence does not entirely displease some of the people in power.
 
I have no proof, of course, just a nasty, suspicious mind.
 
Dean Shomshak

Today's Something Positive 😕

https://twitter.com/RubenBolling/status/1529459769303613440?s=20&t=QGeOKJBAlH7g3ySzpUWt2Ahttps://twitter.com/RubenBolling/status/1529459769303613440?s=20&t=QGeOKJBAlH7g3ySzpUWt2A
 

https://twitter.com/RubenBolling/status/1529459769303613440?s=20&t=QGeOKJBAlH7g3ySzpUWt2Ahttps://twitter.com/RubenBolling/status/1529459769303613440?s=20&t=QGeOKJBAlH7g3ySzpUWt2A
 

I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁

I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁

I received my Traveller HERO books yesterday and I'm over the moon! 😁

First Nations people make up 3.3% of Australia's population.
These First Nations politicians are headed for Canberra
 
There are 151 seats in the House of Representatives and 76 in the Senate (the two numbers are connected).

So First Nations people are underrepresented in the HoR, but proportionately overrepresented in the Senate.

It wasn't so long ago they had no representation. It isn't enough to make a decisive difference in living standards on the ground.

State and Territory level representation varies.

Watched another nostalgia flick, this time one that I don't have any nostalgia for because I didn't watch the originals: Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers. I still enjoyed the bazillion cameos and references to other media properties, a la Roger Rabbit (including several to Roger Rabbit itself). The story was about what you'd expect, nothing brilliant, but it works. More importantly enough of the humor works to make it an enjoyable watch.
 

A very defensible building with solid construction, and tiny windows.  Perfect for a hero base, and not expensive, either. 
 
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/living-in-masonic-temple?utm_medium=atlas-page&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1fSSRJMcnG50SlYQ0c3yAMEJAq1V-gyIPg2fSxtrUSENgtFVdVEq4mqt8

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: A surprisingly enjoyable decades-later sequel. Nothing will recapture the magic of the original, but this was very well done.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: A surprisingly enjoyable decades-later sequel. Nothing will recapture the magic of the original, but this was very well done.

New Daredevil series in the works at Disney Plus

I was first introduced to his music through Carl Sagan's Cosmos series. And then there was Chariots of Fire. From this foundation, I bought a LOT of his music and was always left marveling at what I'd heard. To learn years later that he'd never learned to read music and that he pretty much recorded as he was creating made it all the more impressive to me.
 
His music has inspired me, comforted me, moved me. It has helped define the person I am today.
 
Rest In Peace, Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou.
 
Vangelis: Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner composer dies at 79