I think there’s a few levels of problems with policing.

First, what is the job of the police? If it comes down to protecting people vs government/property, what is the priority? At what point does it switch from protecting a suspect vs stopping a crime? When does a situation go from upholding the law to breaking it? It feels there is a lot of grey area that should be more well defined.

Secondly, should police be policing all the time? If cops are out there seeing nothing but suspected criminals all day, every day, how could that not end up influencing their view on the people they encounter negatively? Maybe we should give police some positive experiences with their community, participating in things for healthy and wellbeing of their fellow citizens? Get them involved in social work, recovery programs, therapy programs with inmates or addicts so they learn why people end up going down the roads they do, food banks, etc. Give them time to see these people as fellow humans with dreams, flaws, and to understand the decisions they face that lead them to the positions they’re in. Also let people on the other end see cops the same way.

I think a lot of hate and violence comes from not understanding people we only briefly encounter, especially when one or both parties is already coming into things with negative views. But subjecting even the nicest cops to nothing but the dark underbelly of society is going to change them negatively. If we want to have good cops, I think we need to make being a cop a better job. Not just offering unlimited overtime to numb the pain of seeing terrible things, but evening out the good and bad experiences with the people you are policing.

There’s still a ton of other things we could get into about just the culture of violence, the incentives of privately run prisons, etc, but all that is a bit darker than I feel like getting into now.

Thanks for the links. I hadn’t gotten around to really learning anything about this guy yet.

Most things sounded like basic things a government should do for people. The real “controversy” seems to be that he wants rich people and businesses to chip in more and not get quite as many special privileges at the sale of other people

The city owned grocery stores sound interesting. The one article said other cities have recently started testing the same idea. In Pennsylvania we have state owned liquor stores that have gotten better now that rules have been loosened to create some competition. They’ve traditionally been looked at as a monopoly, limiting selection and keeping prices high.

With it being just city owned stores, they’d seem to still have all the same competition that exists now, but the city could get volume pricing and not have to include massive real estate expenses into the operating costs. If it continues to be run for the benefit of the people and doesn’t line anyone’s pockets, it sounds like it could be a great benefit.

With the low cost housing, one thing I thought while reading is how do you keep those units from being scooped up by investors?

He’s really got a lot of lofty goals, and it seems like a very intense and complicated job if he gets to be mayor. I wish him luck!

I’m grateful it’s off the table for now. We best keep an eye on this guy though, I’m sure he’s not going to quit trying.

Pennsylvania, so it varies. My friends are of diverse backgrounds, but my extended family is very red and that was how I was raised.

Most people I talk to just follow what “their people” tell them and don’t learn about it any more. We’re on a political community because we’re into it, but the majority of people don’t know or care beyond the sales pitch they get from whomever their preferred media source is.

I find them more politically ignorant than malicious. They’ll say stupid stuff, but if you can get conversation going to where you can present things in a way that is equitable to most people you get “that sounds like a good idea” but tell them that’s a lefty stance and they dig in their heals and won’t believe it.

I’ll hear them say racist or sexist or homophobic things, but they’ve always been respectful to my girlfriends, my gay friends, and I’ve never actually seen them be rude to anyone they thought for their race. They’re just scared of shit they don’t know. Put something in front of them, they see it isn’t scary, and they can accept it because now it’s familiar.

The in laws are worse than my family, but they all drove 6 hours to the one cousin’s lesbian interracial half Jewish, half Christian wedding. They hated the food because it had flavor, but they didn’t make a deal about it in public, and they had a great time and celebrated them as much as at any other wedding, and they love her and accept them both.

Trust me, the cognitive dissonance blows my mind, and it’s hard to accept the duality that people can talk one way and support hateful things while they could turn around and be nice to the people they were just hating on, but that has been my years of experience with people here.

I got experience outside my bubble and learned to love it. I stopped being selfish, learned empathy for strangers, and started trying to understand issues, even if they didn’t directly affect me. They are capable of that. It might never work, but they’re not hopeless. I can’t say I’ve ever met someone who would look at anyone else and to their face wish harm or struggle upon them. They might not be immediately comfortable around them, but I can’t say anyone would wish something negative for them.

I know people that evil do exist, but I again say that is not the majority of people. Nowhere close to it. If we can’t see the potential of the other third to half of our country, we’re done for.

My patience is only for the everyday people in our lives. Most of them I think are poorly or wrongly informed or just have no interest or understanding of politics. I’m plenty interested in politics and the economy, etc, and I maybe have a solid grip on 1% of what all the government actually does or can do.

Those who are public officials, elected or appointed, or in some other way active participants such as citizen “militias”, Jan 6ers, etc… those people can burn in hell for what they’ve done to this place. They’ve done irreparable harm and did it purposefully over decades. They know and understand what they’re doing. They have no excuse. They’re criminals and traitors to our country.

I assume we’re all somewhere left of center here, so I may have not been clear on that distinction.

I agree with the assessment of willful/blind ignorance. This could hardly be proven more than by Rep. Kat Cammack blaming the Democrats for Florida’s abortion ban almost killing her. But while she almost got her own face eaten by the leopard, there would be some karmic justice there one could argue, but again, to see people in America suffer or die for very preventable conditions is insane to me.

The real upside, if we wish to see one from this spiteful and asinine budget cut, is an opportunity to show we’re not whatever it is they’ve been told we are. Make sure your neighbors and family are ok, if they’re MAGA or not. We can look for revenge, or we can live in an egalitarian way that we’d want things to be. Don’t preach people your beliefs, show them why you believe it. You won’t always win people over, but most folks will remember if you gave them a hand when they needed it and didn’t guilt them or hold something over them, but were just a good human being.

We’re allowed to be mad. We deserve to be mad. But we should still act right. Somebody’s got to be the adult in the room.

The downside is those people have kids that didn’t vote for this.

And while I’d like the people that did vote for this to understand what they supported, I really don’t want them to starve either. It feels more cruel than helpful. If we’re supporting basic human rights, which we should, that includes shitty people, for better or worse.

Agreed. While people should continue to fight politically as well, that is much slower and more stacked against them. They (the MAGAs) have been and continue to lose the lawsuits and civil cases against them. Mike Lindell just lost his $2.3 million defamation case and a Jan 6 rioter lost a $500,000 case for wrongful death of a capital police officer within just the last few days.

While I hope Newsom wins this lawsuit, he’s not going to get my vote in a presidential primary. He can certainly be right in one circumstance and not in another.

Hah, I figure I do bother some people with my block of posts, but 1) I put all my posts up and breakfast so people have all day to ask me questions and I have all my down time at work to answer them so you get quick replies before you forget you even asked something, and 2) if seeing 3-5 owl photos is a row is that big a deal, congrats on having no real problems! 😜

I really do feel that way I do it is an advantage for anyone who develops a real interest in the content. It works for me in a way that it isn’t a burden to do it every day, and you get my mostly undivided attention to reply to you.

Amazon

RedBubble

This one is equally good.

They’re available a bunch of places, but I didn’t see any from the actual NPS. There’s one site that looks somewhat official, but it is not.

Aww, you edited it.

He does run with the herd more than I’d prefer, but that’s just how he is.

I’d vote for Joe Bison for president. Love his initiative.

Lol, couldn’t find that, but I did see this one:

I love me some corvids. I’ve built up my relationships with my local clan of Jays from when I was WFH, and we have a bunch of them in the clinic now, along with a crow and a raven.

They’re all wonderful, but I’m still biased toward the owls and raptors.

It’s not the size of the brain, it’s how you use it! 🤪

All libraries should have a guardian owl of some sort!

I don’t think he’d want the job, but he would do it were he asked and give it 110%. He’s no nonsense, a facts-based decision maker, and he listens to people’s issues and makes fair decisions if it’s what you want to hear or not. He’s also not too full of himself to admit when he’s been wrong. He seeks out experts on matters outside of his experience and respects their opinions. He loves his country and looks to do right by those that entrust him with a job.

He would also probably be unfortunately remembered as a terrible president a la Jimmy Carter, as he’d likely trust a number of people he shouldn’t to keep their word, he’d be too compromising for a lot of people, and I don’t think people would like his “lack of personality” they’d get from his public persona. I think Hank would be a top-notch cabinet member though! I would totally support him for any of a number of different ones.

No, he knows Myanmar exists, he’s been sending people back there to be tortured and killed.

That would be my guess, though it could be a young male that hasn’t lost his spots yet.

I’ve enjoyed a ton of animals before owls. The last big one was the hippo, which I still believe to be the true King of Beasts. But since coming here and seeing the early rise of this group here start to fall off, I didn’t want to see it fizzle out, so I shared what personal photos I had first, and then just started researching, and now after close to 2000 posts on them, I’m still learning new things.

I do love the other raptors as well, though doing all the owl work for here is already a job in itself. I wish Lemmy would have not copied Reddit directly with a Superbowl. If it was a general raptor forum, I would be covering all of them. I’m a big fan of vultures, caracaras, and peregrines, but they are all such beautiful animals. There is a large variety of them, and they are all pretty significantly different due to their different prey types and hunting styles.

Having started working with them on the weekends, I’m not running low on excitement for learning more about all of them. They are just amazing to witness in person and to learn about first hand.