How's life?

[Morganator 2.0]

Morgy, have you been going back and editing that list as you make progress on it?

Yes I have. It helps to keep me on track. The deck tools guide is basically done, it's just in the editing and revision phase now. Scarab God primer is mostly done. I will probably get the markdown guide done by this weekend.

[WWolfe]

Been a minute since we all checked in, so how is everyone doing?

I'm fine atm, almost done with all the headache that is enrolling back in college and my kids are almost done with their online learning for the year, curious to see if they start the year in school buildings or online next year. Other than that, we're starting to slowly reopen stuff here in Maryland, through Phase 1 but not sure when we'll start Phase 2.

[WizardSpartan]

I dunno how tuned in people outside of the U.S. are into U.S. news, but there are currently a lot of nonviolent (and some violent) protests going on after the killings of several African-American people (the most mainstream being George Floyd) so local governments are instating curfews (10:00 PM in my area) for people who aren't "going somewhere."

Ngl, it's getting a bit worrying. I read too many dystopian novels to not cringe when I hear the words "government-enforced curfew" together. Let's just hope our very shaky executive branch (if you're picking up what I'm putting down) can handle both the pandemic and the protests/riots going on.

[Morganator 2.0]

These protests are happening worldwide. Police brutality is an issue everywhere it seems.

[Marshstepper78]

We had a protest here in Montréal as well and it invariably turned a bit violent. No curfews though, and I doubt we'll have any imposed on us unless things degenerate horribly and spill over north of the border. It is worrying though for the U.S; Trump seems to not have much interest in actually being in charge. He loves the title of president of course, but his inaction and incompetence - despite his numerous self-congratulatory remarks - regarding the pandemic and now this possible ''civil war'' is alarming. As cliché as this will sound, the U.S. needs leadership and cohesion, and Trump is not up to the task.

[Aetherium Slinky]

We reopened our restaurants with some limitations to number of customers and opening hours. Life seems to go back to normal.

I got accepted to university a few days ago so I've got that going for me.

[WizardSpartan]

I got accepted to university a few days ago so I've got that going for me.

Heyyyyy, nice! Good job, Musta!

These protests are happening worldwide. Police brutality is an issue everywhere it seems.

I've been watching U.S. news a little bit (too much and it gets a little stressful), and they haven't been discussing anything about the rest of the world. It's interesting to hear this, I honestly thought other areas of the world, like Europe, were fine and that America, like usual, is the ugly duckling.

[Morganator 2.0]

I've been watching U.S. news a little bit

So I found your mistake. News outlets almost always have some sort of bias, and they also focus on the negatives. As weird as it sounds, if you check out social media outlets, you'll see the good and the bad. There are a lot of protests that are going on peacefully, and even ones where the police are marching with the protesters.

Let me give you a little preview from around the world (note that I'm posting on mobile so I don't know how well this will turn out).

Canada:


Syria:


United Kingdom:


Australia:


If you avoid the major media outlets, you will see all kinds of reasons to have hope for this. I've seen a police officer chase away another officer for assaulting a protestor. I've seen a group of people stand guard and protect a local establishment from looters. I've seen police officers take a knee in solidarity with the protesters. There is a lot of good happening in the world right now, you just have to know where to look.

Just don't forget that there is still a pandemic going on.

[WizardSpartan]

Well that's heartwarming to know that it's not just the U.S. that's dealing with this.

I've tried to avoid the major media outlets (that's why I said I've only seen news a little), and I've definitely seen videos of cops walking with and helping peacefully protest.

Unfortunately, even a lot of social media twists the story to make all cops bad, but that's obviously a stinking load of bullcrap.

I think that the bias of major media outlets combined with the confusion that is trying to coordinate on social media combined with Covid combined with criminals and Neo-Nazis taking advantage of this whole situation makes it hard to know what's right and true. It's sad, if you think about it.

[Red_Wyrm]

Sooooo I went to a "protest" last night to see what it was exactly. I mean we all see the clips of the ones that go extremely wrong. I wanted to see what a regular protest looked like so I went to one. I got off work at around 10 PM, got to the protest around 10:30. It was pretty lame. Just a big crowd of people. I saw a few things spray painted on walls and windows of shops. SWAT along with the national guard and regular police with riot gear were there. I got bored so I left at about 11. Then I hear it got interesting. It turned into a riot like you see on Fox or CNN with people raiding and looting shops, breaking stuff lighting crap on fire; the whole nine yards. Then the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. Well starting today, they instituted a curfew of 8 PM, which is absolutely government overreach, but at the same time, they cannot have these riots continue.

I always thought the protesting was fine, and that the looting and other criminal activities that these protests seem to devolve into are not, but it never impacted me directly. This happened 5 minutes from where I live. I do not get it. It is really simple. Justice for George Floyd? How is breaking into the local jeweler's shop and stealing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry and doing more thousands of dollars worth of damages justice for George Floyd? How are you going to complain that you're being targeted by cops and then do criminal stuff, making the cops target you?

The officer who killed George Floyd has been arrested. Floyd is getting justice, the right way. Injustice isn't going to bring him back.

Everything else in life is going about the same too so just fuck me apparently; my new boss likes me though.

@Morganator

Those pictures you posted, why does it have to be a race thing? I haven't seen any evidence to suggest the officer was racist, just a douche bag shit head who sucked at his job.

[Morganator 2.0]

Those pictures you posted, why does it have to be a race thing? I haven't seen any evidence to suggest the officer was racist, just a douche bag shit head who sucked at his job.

Time to go over my favorite thing: the stats.

Most of the scientific journals I could link on these studies are locked behind a paywall. Instead this website gives a good summary of the data.

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

Unfortunately the data is only for the united states. But it does show that there is a bias towards blacks and hispanics in lethal encounters with law enforcement. This sentence sums it up nicely:

Black people were 24% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population.

That's a pretty significant difference, considering that if there was no bias, you would expect blacks to be 13% of those killed. That's why these protests are a matter of race. We're well aware of this bias, and it needs to stop. And of course all lives matter, that's obvious, but it's the black lives that need help right now.

[Morganator 2.0]

Arizona and Florida just hit max capacity at ICU wards. The curve was not flattened. More states will follow soon.

Stay home. Stay safe.

[MagicMike78]

Arizona and Florida just hit max capacity at ICU wards. The curve was not flattened. More states will follow soon.

Stay home. Stay safe.

From a european perspective: Lets hope you president or at least the governers will start to understand that not everything is perfect..

And I will definiately not say that the way most countries in europe used was the best possible how to handle the crisis.
But in the States (and many other countries) it is looking currently way more terrifying.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Arizona and Florida just hit max capacity at ICU wards. The curve was not flattened. More states will follow soon.

Stay home. Stay safe.

That's not cool. Not cool at all. I hope you guys are safe and that the curve flattens soon for USA. Otherwise it's going to be a horrible mess. Or a mass tragedy.

[WWolfe]

Some areas of the US are seeing the number of cases dip while others are seeing an increased amount. The difference seems to be the states that are more aggressive on what they're reopening are the states where the cases are seeing an uptick. I won't be surprised to see the states with the uptick start reverting to earlier phases of reopening to try to get the curve back under control.