Well, Shit

This week the news has been awful. More police violence. And now, shooters at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas. I don't even know what to say except...I'm so sorry for those harmed and/or killed. I wish none of it had happened. I wish people--no matter their skin tone or religious beliefs or sexual orientation or gender status--could be safe and live their lives. Most of all, I wish we could do something about the obvious gun problem in this country. There's a reason the GOP doesn't want to permit the study of gun statistics by the CDC or any other governmental organization. It's because the image that information would portray would not be favorable to the NRA. It would gut the profits of the entire gun industry. But it's time. It's long past time. Something has to be done. The common citizen does not need military grade weapons. They don't need semi-automatic guns with huge magazines. They do not need a gun to protect themselves. That's what the police are for. As for the police, they don't need military grade weapons either. They need to clean up their act and be held accountable. They need to earn our fucking trust again. Because I don't know if y'all have noticed? We. Don't. Trust. You. Any. More. Police? You're the violent, out of control, paranoid, drunken parent. People don't want to come forward with evidence lest it be tampered with. Do you understand what that fucking means? You've undercut yourselves. You can't do your fucking job without the trust of the public. When that happens, chaos reigns, not law. Power without accountability is a bad, bad combination, and it's long time that stopped too.

The prison industrial complex needs to end. Jailing people for debt needs to end. 

Dear "Fiscal Conservatives": this is what happens when you squeeze and squeeze and squeeze every dime out of an economy for the sake of a limited few. Humanity already knows where this is headed. We've done it before. Multiple times. This is when the guillotines get sharpened and the pitchforks come out of the barn. It's when the oppressed slap back full force because their pleas for change were ignored and ignored and ignored. The top wealthiest people need to put the fucking money back into the country. People need stable, reliable jobs--and not the kind one has in a fast food restaurant. People need to make a living wage. People need healthcare. People need access to libraries and education. Without these things, society devolves into barbarism. That's what I learned from studying Northern Ireland.

OMG, all this shit has to stop.