mellowtigger | Mooday Monday

I think today marks 2,023 consecutive days of gunfire here in north Minneapolis, according to someone who keeps track.

It has been a rough weekend here in Minneapolis. A few days earlier, this story made the news about the blood spatter still on the sidewalks near Aldi (the grocery store I used before it closed earlier this year), across the street from the hardware store where I walked to buy the paint for my house. People can't afford rent, so evictions are up in the Twin Cities. I mentioned earlier overhearing some guys talk about all of their work shifts being 10-hour shifts now. It seems we're in a race to the bottom of just how much suffering we can all tolerate.

The one good news item I saw from here recently is that someone who was beaten by Minneapolis police officers (who lied about the situation) has created a non-profit trying to encourage so-called "good cops" to step up. They need the encouragement, because they won't get it from their own police union or fellow officers. As I've been saying for a long time now, there was a time in history when everybody knew that the institution of policing across the USA was corrupt to its core. Locally, Minneapolis police are so corrupt that business owners are pressured to hire officers off duty, in spite of cops already earning more money than most of us. It's like that old trope from tv shows about gangsters, "That's a nice business you have there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it." In that vein, I saw recently that DEA agents at airports are searching passengers and taking their money without making arrests. Just because they can, apparently.

I'm looking forward to the new game Cities Skylines 2 being released tomorrow, but even it "simulates a homelessness crisis, getting laid off, and Gen Z going broke". More people are getting desperate, and it's happening for reasons that I've detailed many times over the years. The violence in the USA is so commonplace now, however, that people don't seem to realize any more that this behavior should be considered abnormal. Last night, I was sitting in front of the tv in my recliner chair, under some warm blankets. I opened up Google News on my smart phone, and I switched to the "Headlines / U.S." news tab. It was just story after story after story of gun homicides throughout the USA during the past few hours.

It's almost like everyone knows, deep down, that the status quo is ending. This cannot continue.

The beginning is near.