Musician, mechanic, writer, dreamer, techy, green thumb, emigrant, BP2, ADHD, Father, weirdo

https://www.battleforlibraries.com/

#DigitalRightsForLibraries

  • 16 Posts
  • 19 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I think there’s a misconception about elected officials. Many people believe they work to improve the lives of American citizens, but they don’t.

    This. They want votes. They do what they think will get them votes. And yet, often – and in the last election – the democrats that help the people (like by walking a union picket line, supporting LGBTQ+ and basic human rights, legalizing cannabis, reducing penalties petty crimes, etc.) don’t get the votes that are part of the bargain.

    They vote for and enact legislation that helps the people, and the people don’t re-elect them. The incentive shifts to satisfying wealthy donors.










  • There can be a lot of ways this has nothing at all to do with you.

    Begin anecdote: I just got back from two years out of the country and am back to visit family and earn more money for my next trip. I’m hugely depressed. I drained about $80k in savings that took me 15 years to build, have no job, no car, and am sleeping on a concrete floor in a family member’s basement. I’m grown with three adult children.

    My older cousin has three kids in their late twenties and early thirties. Two daughters live together and have game night every Tuesday. They adore me and invite me weekly. I’ve not had the stamina to endure a long activity like that, and I also am waiting for both sisters to be available, as one had been working nights, but has next Tuesday off.

    When I canceled this past Tuesday, the working sister told me the following day that her father and sister are angry with both of us – convinced I favor working sister more than the two of them. They assume (as is their dramatic nature) that anything that affects them was intentionally done with malice.

    I had a doctor’s appointment the day of game night that ran until 3pm, and game night was 70 miles away at 5pm.

    These two are sure that I’m slighting them, when in reality, I was home rocking on a cold floor trying to find the motivation to face the public so I could eat dinner. I never did eat. I woke to the revelation from working sister, and now, visiting game night seems 50 times more awkward and uncomfortable to me.

    If they hadn’t taken it personally that I’m a mess, I’d be scheduled for game night in two days. As it is, I’m almost 98% guaranteed to skip it to avoid that drama. My canceling had nothing to do with them. My depression and self-loathing are of my own making, and when people feel the need to pressure me or shame me, it never helps in any way.

    End anecdote.

    If you took it personally that people didn’t show to your party, I get it. I’m sorry. But it likely was not you, and isn’t indicative of the care these people have for you. Its their own thing. My advice is to laugh it off as a plan gone wrong and put it behind you. There are real things that affect us. We don’t need to invent them.

    “Remember that time I decided to celebrate my birthday for the first time in decades? I thought 50 would show, but it was 5? Guess that didn’t go as planned!” Its funny, if you let it be.

    Take the win: you stayed on-task and for a big shin-dig planned. You have 50 friends.

    Maybe you can keep gatherings small and simple for a while, and let the large gatherings happen more organically?

    I hope your week is a good one and you can smile about this soon. Happy birthday.



  • “It’s irresponsible for the Department, and a disservice to its officers and to the people of the city of New York for the NYPD to claim it needs more than 60 days to review every case it receives from CCRB,” said the Rev. Fred Davie, who chaired the oversight board until two years ago. “Simply ignoring substantiated incidents of misconduct is truly untenable and indefensible.”

    The CCRB did have a history of handling cases slowly, but that was due in large part to the NYPD withholding evidence from civilian investigators, a 2020 investigation by ProPublica found.

    After police shot and killed a Bronx man in his own apartment in 2019, the department refused to share the body-camera footage with the oversight board for more than a year and a half. The delay prevented the CCRB from filing charges against the officers within the statute of limitations. (The department has since pledged to hand over body-camera footage within 90 days of a request from the board.)

    This year, Caban announced that he would not impose any discipline in the killing. He approved an NYPD judge’s ruling that the oversight board had acted too late.

    “The CCRB is not perfect, but its goal is clearly accountability,” said Chris Dunn, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. “The NYPD clearly does not have that goal. When a problem arises, the department’s default solution is to kill the case.”












  • And here I am, divorced and never marrying again, lucky to be dating the same girl for eight years. And then there’s that one day every few years where she runs out of her meds and begins believing I’m plotting against her when I ask how her mom is doing that I think, “I’m super glad I didn’t get married again so I can just walk away if this shit lasts more than a few days.”

    That’s love. Staying with someone, not because you’re married and a divorce is a huge legal hassle, but because they haven’t freaked all the way the fuck out yet.

    PS, make friends with your pharmacist, fellow BPSOs. Make sure they keep those mood stabilizers and antipsychotic in stock.