Let’s See What Sticks: Just throwing some random thoughts out there

Rather than multiple posts about multiple recent issues, I’m stirring them together to stir the pot.  No long diatribes here, just short snippets:

Re: the cowards of the country in Texas

Are there any examples of cops being “good guys with a gun”?  Because all I see are murderous thugs and cowards.  Just this week, five cops in Kansas City shot and Black woman in the back five times because she ran away from them.

She was pregnant.  She was not a suspect.  She was unarmed.  Why did they shoot her?  She is alive, but I have not heard whether she will have long term health issues or if the foetus is still viable.

“We were afraid of being shot!”  “We’re glad no police officers were hurt.”

THIS has been the response of the clowns in Uvalde?  Gutless guys with guns is more like it.

The media has been criticizing the incompetent and ineffective response of the cops in Texas, but this is not a “Uvalde only” problem.  ALL cops in the US are this cowardly: cowering and hiding in Parkland, Florida; cases of shooting and murdering unarmed people; attacking, beating, tasing the homeless and mentally ill; refusing to enforce Restraining Orders and allowing males to murder women; the 40%ers, beating their partners and children.  Pressure the media to report ALL the cases of cowardly cops using violence against those who are no threat, and running away from anyone who actually was a threat.

One of the incompetents in Uvalde is named Ruben Ruiz.  He was married to Eva Mireles, one of the two teachers who was murdered.  Ruiz sat outside for forty minutes while his wife died.  It makes you wonder if Ruiz is one of the 40%ers.

Also of note: The Taiwanese/Americans in California did not have guns, they charged the shooter in their church and disarmed him.  And the people who stopped the mass murderer in the attack on a New Zealand mosque were unarmed too.  It looks to me as if the good guys are the ones who care about and protect other people’s lives, even at the risk of their own.

Final thought: I was impressed by Beto O’Rourke challengine the republiclowns spewing fictions on that stage.  I have to wonder if the one calling O’Rourke a “sick son of a bitch” would be the type to shoot someone like O’Rourke without justification if there were no witnesses.

Re: Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard

I have had ZERO interest in this case and not paid attention to any sordid details.  I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.  They’re strangers to me, so I don’t care.

What I did notice was how this repeats the media’s misogyny by selective reporting.  Compare this to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, when he was stalking her, or other high profile cases of abuse involving celebrities, or even when they’re nobodies.  When males are reported or spoken of as the aggressors and abusers, excuses are made.  When women like Heard are accused of being the abusers, it sounds like the media is saying “they’re all like that!”

It’s the same thing we see with rape: when women report, they’re attacked, questioned, intimidated and accused of “false reporting” if there isn’t a guilty conviction.  Meanwhile the rare cases of false accusation (e.g. Brian Banks) are portrayed and spoken of as the majority of cases.  It even happens with car driving, whining about “women drivers” when in reality speeding and roadraging is overwhelmingly a male behaviour.  Which goes right back to the Texas mass murder and male violence, but now includes the bigoted and sexist legal system.

 

Re: the church shooting in California

The media has labelled the shooting a “hate crime”.  It’s not.  This was a political, terrorist attack, bordering on assassination.

“Panda” is a CCP euphemism for the ethnic Chinese diaspora around the world.  Just as all the black and white animals belong to China, the CCP also says the ethnic diaspora belongs to China.  The CCP (take note this is the party, not the Chinese people themselves) fosters this mentality to encourage espionage and other activities that benefit the PRC.  The murderer in California was from Taiwan, but he was part of pro-CCP, pro-reunification groups.  He is a “panda” who opposes Taiwan’s independence.

Re: republican indifference to the mass murder of children at public schools

I’m really starting to wonder if they want mass shootings and mass deaths to happen.  They are the ones trying to defund and close public schools, to privatize education.  Is letting kids die one way to justify doing that?

He Panders Again: Dustbin Trudeau and his half measures

I say go the whole Hogg and ban everything, pun definitely intended.

In response to the US’s latest mass murder of children, Canada’s PM Trudeau has announced a new bill that will “freeze” handgun ownership, preventing the sale, trade or transfer of all handguns, new or used.  I do not know whether “transfer” includes being unable to inherit handguns, but I hope it does, and thus once people who own them die, no one will own handguns.

Also part of the legislation is a limit of five bullets in rifle magazines, making it illegal own, sell, manufacture or alter rifles to hold more than five.  This will continue the current “one trigger pull, one bullet” rule that eliminates semi-automatics.

I say it’s still not enough.  There’s more restriction on crossbows in Canada than on handguns.  Any bow shorter than 45cm is deemed concealable and illegal, and so are multi-firing crossbows.  And yet currently owned handguns will still be allowed?

I do, however, like the poke in the eye and prod in the ribs this is to US politicians.  If all the parties in a functioning democracy like Canada can agree on legislation this restrictive, it’s a sign that it can be done, and that if the US doesn’t address its issue, it’s moral cowardice and a lack of will.

I’m beginning to suspect that some form of legislation will be proposed and pass, but it still will not deal with the core issue and cause of mass shooters: males with histories of violence.  More about that later.

Life Intrudes Again

Excuse my dust, and my silence.  It’s partly due to personal issues, and partly to keep my mouth shut and not say things I would regret (read: get in trouble for) or have to delete if I said it about recent world events.

Expect a proper post within an hour.

Greed Kills: And Kansas City wants people to die

The Shawnee city council in Kansas City, US, have enacted a new law, banning people from living together if they aren’t related (i.e. not married, not siblings or cousins, etc.).

At first, you might think, “Here we go again, religious fanatics attacking couples who aren’t married and people who are LGBTQIA,” but you’d be wrong.  This policy applies to everyone, even to cis heterosexual binary people cohabiting who will never have sex (e.g. straight women only, straight men only).

This is about preventing young adults from splitting the cost of rent and saving themselves money, about forcing them to pay exorbitant rents.  Bigotry may be part of this, but primarily it’s greedy property owners and corrupt politicians on the take.  They want to force single people to live alone and bear the cost of skyrocketing rents while wages stagnate.

There is no “crime”, so why are they legislating this?  It won’t increase their revenues.  Instead, it will drive young single, people out of the city or leave them homeless.  The clowns running that city clearly didn’t think this through when they took kickbacks from property owners.  They’ll probably raise rents to “compensate for lost revenue”.

But what else would expect from a state run by corrupt republiclowns that bought into “supply side economics” and drove the state into bankruptcy?

 

Co-living rentals banned in this Johnson County city after unanimous council vote

On Monday, a Johnson County city unanimously voted to ban a living arrangement aimed at helping tenants decrease the amount of rent they pay.

The Shawnee City Council voted 8-0 to ban co-living, becoming among the first Kansas City area municipalities to prevent the practice, which has gained popularity in recent years as rent and home prices have soared.

The new ordinance defines a co-living group as a group of at least four unrelated adults living together in a dwelling unit. The ordinance stated that if one adult is unrelated to another adult, then the entire group will be classified as unrelated.

The practice, which includes things like sharing a kitchen, living room and community areas, started to gain popularity as rental and housing prices continued to increase across the United States.

“Co-living has become increasingly popular because of its cost effectiveness and greater flexibility in cities where rents are high for young professionals,” The Washington Post wrote in 2019.

[. . .]

“Over and over again, what rose to the surface was the cost of housing was the thing that was impacting people’s ability to be healthy,” Baughman said [Kristy Baughman, director of education and planning for United Community Services of Johnson County].

 

Juliana Hatfield, “Landlord” (lyrics found here):

I Shouldn’t Laugh: The Parking Lot Is Full, 1993-2002

The web comic The Parking Lot Is Full debuted on October 29, 1993, and its last comic was published on May 5, 2002, twenty years ago.  For early users of the World Wide Web, PLIF was a rite of passage with it’s “It’s funny, but I shouldn’t be laughing” style of dark and disturbing humour.

PLIF’s creators Jack McLaren and writer Pat Spacek started like most web comic writers and artists, at a university newspaper.  Their grayscale single panel comics suited the WWW and quickly became a staple of many Gen-Xers and early internet adopters.  It was sad to see the comic come to an end, but it was a fun and wild ride while it lasted.  The original PLIF website has long gone, but a fan-run archives preserved most of the comics and can still be viewed.

From TV Tropes .com:

Webcomic / The Parking Lot Is Full

From 1993-2002, The Parking Lot is Full was the comic strip love child of artist Jack McLaren and writer Pat Spacek. Starting as crude little strips published in their university newspaper, the comic quickly took on a life of its own, eventually becoming one of the most popular and infamous comic strips on the internet. After nine years of ups and downs, the creators decided that they’d said everything they wanted to say, so the comic was wrapped up and all the toys put away.

This joke-a-day webcomic show a very dark sense of humor and is very macabre. It still remains one of the best old-school webcomics ever made and is definitely worth a try.

The original domain name has expired, but you can find the full archive on the memorial website. Some comics have been removed, for various reasons, from the archive. Most of these missing comics can be found on this blog.

From Comicmix:

Webcomics You Should Have Read: ‘The Parking Lot Is Full’

What made ‘PLIF’ (get used to this folks, cause “The Parking Lot Is Full” takes a while to type) so enjoyable was it’s fascinating combination of Gary Larsen-esque illustrations combined with sharp writing and a touch of the macabre. Unlike several previous recommendations here on ComicMix, ‘PLIF’ had no continuity really to follow. Yes, there are a few reoccurring sock puppets in the later half of the series, but there’s no backstory to follow (well, anymore…). And to be honest, the really juicy strips are true non-sequiturs.

I’ll be frank, folks, this strip features some of the most laugh-out-loud-but-frankly-I-shouldn’t-be-laughing strips I’ve had the pleasure to read for free on the ‘inter-webs’. There’s no need for lengthy exposition on the progression of the art; It’s crude, in gray tones, and unpolished as my car in February. There’s no need to wax poetic about the subject matter; Generally ‘PLIF’ stuck to a cycle of topics including childhood, sex, religion, and conspiracy theories (sometimes in the same strip!). Simply put, if the ‘Far-Side’ was rolled through a plate of broken glass, you’d have “PLIF”. Suffice to say the content can disturb as much as it can inspire fits of laughter… and that’s what I appreciate about it. 

I wholeheartedly (or blackheartedly) agree with that description.

Below the fold are a few select favourites.  If you don’t know PLIF, be prepared to be disturbed. ^o^

[Read more…]

Traffic Terrorism Strikes Again: This time, in Finland

Since the start of the pandemic, the rate of pedestrian injuries and deaths cauysed by cars has skyrocketed.  Because of lockdowns, selfish lemmings in shiny metal boxes saw roads with less traffic as an excuse to speed and race.  And that’s before addressing the massive increases in road rage incidents (which in the US are made more common by “laws” that make “open carry” even easier).

US’s Governors Highway Safety Association, 2020:

Pedestrian Deaths Soar in 2020 Despite Precipitous Drop in Driving During Pandemic

GHSA projects there were 6,721 pedestrian deaths in 2020 – a 4.8% increase from the 6,412 fatalities reported by SHSOs the year before. Factoring in a 13.2% decrease in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2020, the pedestrian fatality rate was 2.3 per billion VMT, a shocking and unprecedented 21% increase from 1.9 in 2019. This projection is the largest ever annual increase in the pedestrian death rate since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) was established in 1975.

US’s Governors Highway Safety Association, 2021:

Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State: 2021 Preliminary Data

A new analysis from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) projects that U.S. drivers struck and killed 3,441 pedestrians in the first six months of 2021, up 17% – or 507 additional lives lost – from the same period the year before.

And it’s not limited to the US.

When I first saw this clip, I thought it was a public service announcement made with CGI.  I didn’t believe that a car would drive that fast or that close to people, especially not on cobblestones.

Sadly, I was completely wrong.  There were only injuries, no fatalities, but that’s more due to chance than anything else.

Typical of cagers and roadragers, some in the comments on different sites are blaming the pedestrian crossing the road (“he should have looked!”) and not the drunken religious fanatic behind the wheel (confirmed in the news that he was drunk, and translations say he’s babbling about “god” and “satan”).

From the Helsinki Times:

Three injured as man drives car into crowd in Helsinki

A 33-YEAR-OLD MAN is suspected of causing a serious traffic hazard, driving while seriously intoxicated, negligent bodily injury, resistance to a public official and contumacy to the police over an incident that left three people injured and several cars damaged in downtown Helsinki on Saturday.

The events began at around 7pm as the man failed to comply with a police stop signal on Pohjoisranta, according to Helsinki Police Department.

The motorist instead continued south toward Pohjoisesplanadi, which was crowded with people celebrating Vappu. Police opted not to chase him. He caused damage to several cars before driving into another car close to the west end of the road, inflicting injuries to three people including himself.

All the injured were taken to hospital for treatment, but the injured victims have since been discharged from hospital.

[. . .]

Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday wrote that eyewitnesses said the man was driving a Mercedes Benz, which ultimately came to a stop in front of Café Esplanad. Information obtained by the newspaper indicates that the car is owned by a man who works in the central government and ran unsuccessfully in the county elections organised in January.

A pedestrian fatality here this week exemplifies the ludricrous attitude many have about “cars’ rights”, blaming the pedestrian for crossing the road.  Not for “crossing illegally”, but for crossing the road on foot.  They’re blaming the victim, because he was walking, and excusing those who were speeding and hit him.

I know that intersection well.  The bridge roadway angles down about 150 metres before reaching Xining Road.  The crosswalk is not visible, but the traffic lights are.  Those on the bridge saw green lights, so they kept speeding.  A truck ran over the already injured man.

Taipei man dies after being struck by 4 cars in a row

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taipei man died early Sunday morning (May 2) after he was struck by four cars while trying to cross a street in Wanhua District.

At 3 a.m. on Sunday, a 41-year-old man surnamed Chuang (莊) attempted to cross Zhongxiao West Road at the intersection with Xining Road via a crosswalk, but the light turned red before he had made it halfway across. Chuang tried to run to the other side but was suddenly struck by a taxi driven by a 57-year-old man surnamed Ting (丁) who was heading east after having just traversed Zhongxiao Bridge.

Many drivers here will race through yellow lights or even red lights, trying to be the last to make it even after the other direction has a green light. But if you’re a pedestrian and you dare to try and cross the street with less than ten seconds left, some drivers will start lurching forward in a threatening way or honk, expecting you to hurry.  And if pedestrians are still on the crosswalk when it turns green for the other direction, drivers see it as a right to hit you.

It Follows

Keep this in mind:

Those who want to criminalize abortion also want to legalize the rape and violent assault of women.

They will inevitably try to take away voting rights, marriage equality, LGBTQIA protections, etc.  EVERYONE should be fighting this and supporting causes thatt don’t affect you.  As the US’s own “founding fathers” said, “hang together or hand separately”.

The white supremacist court’s threat to women (“hosts” as rightwing scum call them, instead of people) may not directly deny the right to abortion.  But by using the lie of “states rights”, fascist politicians can criminalize it within one state, then potentially “extend” it to apply in other states where abortion is legal.

Women who travel for abortions will be at risk.  Doctors who provide health care in one state could be arrested should they travel to a rightwing state that hates women.

The US could become a patchwork of bad laws, attempts to “extradict” doctors from one state to another.  And another republiclown “president” would allow it to be enforced, allow doctors to be sent to prison and killed by states under false charges.

XX people should not have to deny themselves the enjoyment of sex.  But there may come a point where refusing all penetrative sex may become a necessity solely out of self-preservation.   Then watch the red states get blue balls and try to legalize or rationalize partner and marital rape. Or all rape, as some in the repugnant party would like it to be (e.g. certain judges).

#poemsfortheresistance

2025 is the year that white, rightwing boomers reach the average age of life expectancy.  They will begin to die by natural causes in the millions (*), and whites will gradually become a minority population.  It’s why the extremists are desperate to create a fascist apartheid state before that happens.

It cannot come soon enough.

(* US population: approx. 330 million, of which boomers are 21%.  Boomers range from 1946 to 1964, and average US life expectancy is 79 years.)