“The Democrats are the REAL Heroes!”

I am getting so sick of this endless canard that the Democrats are somehow better than Republicans and are going to save this country.  It’s a lie.  One that has been drilled into so many people’s heads that it makes me sick.  How are people unable to see the reality?  How do people just buy into this without even the slightest shred of skepticism?  What is it about people and their NEED to believe in the goodness of the Democrats that just overrides their critical thinking?  I know what it is.  It’s the fact that Republicans are blatantly evil.  And this is by design.  This is all part of the system.  This is all part of the plan.  There is nothing about how this works that isn’t deliberate.  Because when you get down to it, both parties are equally evil.  The ONLY difference is that one is blatant about how evil they are, and the other pays lip service to how evil they aren’t. 

David Hogg recently gotten himself in hot shit with the liberal community by calling out the Democrats and their utter failure to put up a real fight for anything.  As a victim of a school shooting, he has a reason to be upset about how they seem to talk a big talk about doing stuff, but when push comes to shove, they buckle instantly and either pass nothing at all, or legislation that is so utterly toothless that it might as well be nothing.  He was not nice to them when he went on his rant.  It as impassioned and well deserved.  The Democrats are the party of fundraising off tragedy, without doing a damn thing to actually stop it.  They like to use bad situations for their coffers, but when it comes time to actually take a stand, they are toothless cowards.  Corpo rats who know that if they did something real, it would bite that precious hand that feeds them.

I am writing this post in the middle of a heat wave.  One that has been going on for over six days.  Six days of over 90 degree weather.  And I am SO FUCKING OVER IT!  This country is on fire right now.  And what are the Democrats doing to stop this?  Well, they did allocate some funds.  Some paltry funds.  Where did the bulk of their funds go?  To the police, of course!  The police who stood outside a classroom in Uvalde and didn’t do a damn thing to stop one kid with one gun from killing children.  The police who are only tough when they throw their weight around when it is defenseless protestors.  After all, we saw how the police treated the people on January 6th.  Paul Blart would have been a better cop in that situation.

So the country is burning.  And we aren’t the only one.  The UK has been both temperature and with fire burning.  My home state is burning.  The effects of climate change are really starting to ramp up.  But what do the Democrats decide needs to be funded?  The police, of course!  Well thank Groj!  I’m so glad that they have their priorities straight.  The part of me that thinks the absolute worst of our government (because they are corpo slaves who do nothing except fight for the rich and powerful) thinks this is because they know that as this problem worsens, food is going to start becoming a real issue.

The French Revolution kicked into high gear when people couldn’t get bread anymore.  History repeats itself.  This country is on the edge of a knife in terms of social unrest.  All it will take for the people to lose their shit is something like the food supply suddenly getting so thin that the costs become insane, and the people decide that it’s time for the rich and powerful to get a lead injection.  They can’t hire private military companies to protect them.  Any self-respecting mercenary will ditch them the SECOND that they see the mob coming up the street.  They are the modern equivalent of sellswords, and you can’t pay them enough to die for you.  The police, on the other hand, are government hired thugs that can be forced to die for the rich and powerful.  Or at least until the rich and powerful flee.  Which would be a good option.  I am hoping them and their evil companies go with them.  Let them leave this country and let our economy crash and burn.  Then we can actually do something worthwhile with it.

When David Hogg lost his shit, and acknowledged that he has burned a lot of bridges with the brunch Democrats, the amount of replies he got shitting on him and absolutely polishing the knob of the Democratic Party was insane.  Why do people believe that they are on their side?!  They had 50 years to codify Roe, with THREE super-majorities.  What did they do?  Nothing.  It wasn’t until Roe was repealed that they SUDDENLY did a half-assed legislation to codify gay marriage, knowing it would never pass because they have their go-to blame machine of Manchin and Sinema who they can use as a get out of jail free card so they don’t have to actually try and do anything.  The truth is, Democratic leadership doesn’t feel bad about the fact that they have two people who get in the way of them doing anything that would help people.  In fact, they love those two.  If they didn’t, then they would actually do this little thing called playing politics with them.  You know, like what Pelosi threatened to do with AOC and her ilk if they didn’t play ball with the party.

The argument that everyone who was mad at Hogg went to is – so you think the GOP is better?  What a false dichotomy.  Just because we think the Democrats are evil and don’t deserve our votes by virtue of them being Democrats doesn’t mean we are on the Republicans side.  This is something that has been drilled into people – that there are only two options.  Well, I am registered as an Independent.  If Bernie decides to run against Biden, I know who I am voting for.  The geriatric whose brain doesn’t need endless amounts of Adderall to function.  Also, if the ONLY reason that you vote for the Democrats is because you think the Republicans are worse, then all you are doing is delaying the inevitable.  It’s all just a dog and pony show.  And both parties go to the bank with it.

America just passed an almost $900 billion defense bill.  Yes, more money to the military, who is the single-biggest polluter on this planet.  They certainly need the money.  We now spend more than the next 15 countries put together.  Isn’t that special?  And how many Democrats voted against that bill?  What’s that?  Almost none?  It was almost uniform approval?!  Well what do you know!  And how many of them are against Biden’s new “even more police to control the people” plan?  Oh wait, that’s not what it’s called.  That’s too honest.  The Democrats can’t get anything done by being honest.  Nope, gotta swaddle it in a comforting lie.  Like how now people are onboard with Biden’s support of the military industrial complex.  Or how people are championing him finishing Trump’s border wall.  If Republicans came out in favor of breathing, would they be against it?  Man, part of me thinks the Republicans should campaign on climate change.  It would be the perfect out.  Oh wait, they can’t do that, because their base would eat them alive, while the Democrats give their base the finger.

That is, until election season, where they get all mad at us for not voting for them.  Because after all, the only REAL thing they have to do is not be a Republican candidate, with their open hatred of the LGBT and minorities.  So long as the Democrats keep paying that lip service, who cares if the world is burning?  The “good guys” are in the White House.  So everything is magically going to be okay.  Just ask David Hogg about it, when he read through all the hate he got.  Brave dude.  Bravest dude I have seen in a while.  It is high time that people started calling this party out for what corpo sellouts they are.  For what gutless cowards they are.  For what spineless ninnies they are.  For what corrupt gits they are.  Hey, let’s ask Pelosi about that, while she is doing insider trading of Nvidia stock.

Until next time, a quote,

“The more you learn, the less you know.” – Omar Little, The Wire

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien Drinks: Strawberry Pina Colada

Currently, it is day four of six of an unbearable heat wave in the state that I live in.  With two more days ahead, I have been in hell.  I stand at just under 7ft tall, and I am not a skinny guy.  Add to that the fact that I sweat like a pig and I have been in HELL for the last four days.  Over 90 degrees every day.  Been hard on my tiny fiancee as well.  Also our kitty.  I make sure that kitty has cool (not cold.  Too cold and it can be bad for an animal) water and has plenty of fans going so she can cool down all day.  Poor kitty.  Perks of working from home now that COVID is on the rampage once again.

It has still been a difficult time for me, and part of that is how things never seem to work out.  Let’s start with events as it relates to the title of this post.  I bought a Ninja brand blender at Costco a few weeks back.  Looked like a good product, the reviews were good.  So yeah, worth the coin I dropped on it.  Didn’t actually end up using it until a few days ago.  Or at least I would have, if the thing didn’t decide to be completely defective.  My partner and I tried everything we could to make it work.  It’s busted.  Naturally, in the middle of a heat-wave, with a bunch of shit in my life going wrong, I kind of lost my shit.  In any event, it is back in its box and going back to Costco on Saturday so I can get my money back.

That being said, I still wanted what I was going to make with a blender that night.  So I decided that it was time to get a new one.  I went on Amazon and I did some research and found one that is good.  It’s crazy loud, which had me feeling guilty for my kitty’s ears, but it is worth every penny.  I got to make my drink.  This is a drink that I have been missing since for years – a strawberry pina colada.  A virgin one, to be precise.  Don’t get me wrong, Malibu rum in this stuff is just glorious.  However, I didn’t feel like it.

Drinking this absolutely sublime beverage brought back a TON of memories for me.  The first time I had this drink was in Hawaii when I was much younger.  It was my first vacation.  It was such an amazing time.  I got to see a part of the world so unlike my own.  I got to swim and snorkel.  The whole family was loving it.  Well, not the WHOLE family.  See, my sister had the bag of fish feed for when one snorkels, and she didn’t realize that it was open and leaking when she was headed out into deeper water.  So the fish congregated around her and my sister lost her shit and went back to shore.  It was hilarious.  But for Sally, my old man, and myself, it was a magical day.

Sally bought some pina colada mix from the story and the timeshare that we were staying at (one of her coworkers.  If you don’t use it each year, you lose it, so they lent it to us on a year they didn’t want to use it) had a blender.  We put in frozen strawberries into the mix.  The taste was sublime.  Perfect in every way.  I have never drank anything that took away the heat or filled me with such glorious happiness the way that did.  It was a perfect drink.  We had int many times while we were there.

So many memories of that trip.  Going to a famous historical site for native Hawaiian culture and learning about their ancient customs.  Going to a beach where the waves were WAY too high to swim and having Sally nearly give me a heart attack when she grabbed me from below when I was able to swim up a wave before it started to crest.  Watching Jaws before that trip did NOT help.  Lots of snorkeling.  Running my hands on a sea turtle, which were weren’t supposed to do, but I didn’t bother it.  Just wanted to cop a feel, as it were.

All these memories that I am having, it is a good feeling.  Getting to go back in time and think about the days of my life which are far removed from how difficult things are now.  Moving to another state has been…something of a disaster.  So much goes wrong, and I sometimes feel like I just want to pull the ripcord on this and go home.  But I keep finding things about being here that aren’t so bad, and that is a good thing.

I have done a lot of exploring this summer.  My fiancee and I went to a botannical garden that was gorgeous.  We visited two state parks over the summer.  The first one was glorious.  The second one was a tourist trap and not worth the pain in the ass it was to get there.  We also have a local park that is such a quiet out of the way magical place by the sea.  I want to go there again one of these days, once the heat wave has broken.  There is a lot of beauty in this state.  I just wish that it could give me some good luck in finding a job that pays enough to live on.  Had the dream job in my grasp.  It was right there!  But it slipped through my fingers and I didn’t even get a cursory explanation of why.  At least the other job I was hoping for hit me back to tell me I wasn’t in the running.  Put them ahead of literally every other position where they say they will hit me back and don’t.

Now my fiancee is on her way home from work, so I’m going to pour her a drink for when she arrives.  I am sure she is going to be as in love with it as I am.

Until next time, a quote,

“Life is on easy mode today.” – Penn Jillette, Bullshit (the dolphins episode)

Peace out,

Maverick

Why Can’t The MCU End?

For those who didn’t know, the MCU is still chugging along. Between all the completely boring Disney+ shows and the lackluster filmography, it is a machine that just doesn’t stop. Why doesn’t it stop? Because Disney literally can’t afford to. Their creativity is gone. They don’t have the income or the talent to make things that really take risks. Or at least, they refuse to do so. Every time you hear of a film of theirs that gets a new director because of “creative differences,” you know it was because they wanted to do something with a film that was unique, and Disney didn’t like that.

The MCU is a carefully-maintained product that is made and designed from the ground up to be a source of bland, inoffensive movies that appeal to the broadest audience possible. And as such, is as bland as possible. Take a crazy risk with some new idea that people may not all like? Fuck that! While I think Thor: Love and Thunder is the worst film marketed as a comedy, I will at least give that it is an MCU film that isn’t designed to appeal to everyone. I can’t imagine who it is designed to appeal to, but there is that.  This franchise is a well-oiled machine of blandness, as trapped in its own formula as a Nintendo franchise or anything Ubisoft makes. 

Still, the cracks might be appearing to show.  Ms. Marvel was a show made for 10 year olds that was marketed for mainstream superhero fans.  And as you can imagine, it wasn’t well received with the mainstream crowd.  Moon Knight was a bait-and-switch.  Hawkeye was a bait-and-switch.  Falcon and the Winter Soldier was a preaching device masquerading as a show about superheroes.  Shang-Chi had some neat ideas, but the delivery was such a mess.  Eternals was the first almost-universally panned MCU film, and for good reason.  It was bland, lifeless, and DULL. 

With superhero fatigue more than starting to show, it’s a wonder that Disney isn’t trying to slow things down.  Maybe go back to the drawing board a little?  Make some movies that take risks?  Yeah…we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.  In fact, let’s take a little peek-y at the upcoming plans for Phase 5.

I literally cannot begin to tell you how unexcited I am for any of this crap.  Yes, I see Blade up there, but it will be so watered-down and Disneyfied that there is absolute ZERO chance it will be worth my time.  Another PG-13 (which is right now practically PG) superhero movie which should be a hard R.  I don’t care.  What is on there that looks any good?

A lot of people ask – why do you make such a big deal about this?  You can just not watch it.  That’s true.  And I won’t be.  I didn’t pay a movie theater to be see the latest unfunny Thor comedy, either.  A chum of mine pirated it for me.  But here’s the thing – every one of these movies made is something that could actually be creative and interesting not being made.  The world has no limit of creative people.  But those people don’t get the time of day.  Why?  Because they have to go and be slaves in the Disney dungeon where they keep writers who pump out this crap for them.  None of it has any heart.  It’s all bland, corpo packaged content that is made to be as mass appealing as any other.

The superhero genre needs to die.  I am 110% over it.  I see that list above, and all I think is – think of all the interested movies that could be made.  Like, did you know that Disney now owns the Muppets?  Instead of a garbage CG animated version of a classic animated film, they could try their hand and making some of the classics with muppets. That could actually be fun!  Maybe a Fantasia sequel with Muppets?  I’ll at least give that a chance.  But that’s not what we get.  We get the next $200 million MCU project that looks like shit.  It needs to end.  The whole MCU should have ended with Endgame.  They should have let it languish for about 10 or so years.  Moved on to something new or different.  Let it get some nostalgia.  And then, 10 years later, bring it back with new energy.  Instead, we get them trying to maintain relevancy with a less interesting cast that isn’t going anywhere fast.

Maybe the MCU is a representation of Hollywood in general and the lack of creativity in the film industry as a whole.  Streaming services are sinking a ton of money into shows that they have to get their pet online media to say are good, because there are precious few people outside of that who are.  Great directors are out there, directing trash like this.  Why?  What’s the point?  Just to make more people go to Disney+?  I don’t feel for the directors.  They chose to sell out to the House of Mouse.  But what is Disney’s long term goal?  To just make enough money to tread water?

Walt Disney used to value animation, seeing it as a voyage of discovery.  What does modern Disney value?  Do they even understand that creativity breeds new franchises?  They captured lightning in a bottle with the MCU.  Now it’s time to try something else.  Open a new can of worms and see what they can get.  This is how things become big ideas.  Wizard movies were big because of Lord of the Rings, and then the Harry Potter franchise.  Superheroes were big, but the fatigue is real.  It’s time to try out some new ideas.  Look at some of the scripts that some poor writer who is in your slave dungeon came up with when their evil guards were looking.  Just something to think about.

Until next time, a quote,

“If I had one magic wish it would be for the MCU to stop. I would spend a genie on that.” – Chris Ray Gun

Peace out,

Maverick

The Last of Us Remake is a Cash Grab

Something that always bums me out is when a company that I respect becomes something shameful.  It happens to the best of them.  Gaming is infested with it now.  It’s getting harder and harder to find companies who aren’t.  This is part of why I am getting more and more disenchanted with gaming as a hobby.  Company after company, showing their hand as one that only cares about making money and couldn’t give a single fuck about the art of gaming.  I get that gaming is about making money, but here’s the thing – games can be profitable without the company who makes them becoming complete trash.  From Software is a great example.  They release quality games with no bells or whistles, have DLC that is only major expansions.  Reminds me of what Bioware used to be. 

A couple days ago, there was a major leak of what was believed to be gameplay of the new The Last of Us remake.  And…it didn’t look great.  The gameplay was EXACTLY the same as the original game.  Nothing had changed about the locations or any of that.  The only thing that was noticeable was the fact that the locations were much more detailed.  That’s it.  Needless to say, the Internet started tearing the game apart.  Naughty Dog had to have some kind of response after this.  But there wasn’t a word.  You’d think a PR statement would have been drafted immediately, but nope.  Instead, it was just dead air, until tonight.  A trailer dropped showing off the gameplay for this new “remake.”  And it’s exactly what the leak showed.  Take a look for yourself.

Rebuilt for the PS5?  What a joke!  What an absolute joke!  This is not a rebuilt game.  The remake of Demon Souls was a rebuilt game.  From the ground up, the game was remade.  If you played the original from 2009, and then the new one, it is two completely different experiences.  The remake of Final Fantasy VII is rebuilt from the ground up.  This?  This is, at BEST, a graphical update.  They are charging people $70 for a graphical update!  Unbelievable! 

Who are the people being duped by this?  I said before that the character models all look worse in this game, and that is still true.  They all look fucking terrible.  Sam and his brother got it the absolute worst!  The original game, they really kept the people portraying them.  That makes sense.  But their new versions just look off.  Everyone looks off!  How is this an improvement?  Is this what they call a rebuild for the PS5?  Just making the character models look worse?  And they changed the lighting for certain scenes!  It’s like the demo for Overwatch 2.  The maps have different lighting!

My girlfriend commented on these changes as it being something that The Sims players would be excited about.  Because you’re literally staring at the house all day.  There are mod packs for that game that does nothing but change the lighting.  That’s what Naughty Dog has done here.  This is a graphical mod.  They are charging $70 for a graphics mod.  Really think about that.  And apparently, the $99 deluxe edition has already sold out!  Are you kidding me?!  How are people this easily duped!  It’s the whole PS4 Remastered story all over again.  Except with that game, they charged $40, because they knew it was just a polish of the same game.  Here?  Nope!  Full price!  For a graphics mod!

But when you see gameplay in motion, I honestly don’t see the difference between this version and the one for my PS4 Pro.  The visuals are not that updated.  They just talk on and on about the visuals and how they are so much more exceptional.  But then you see it being played, and it somehow looks worse than the PS4 one!  Hell, at times it made me think of the one on PS3!  They are charging $70 for this?!  I’m gonna put this plainly – it’s a cash grab.  Yes, it looks nice.  That’s it.  This is NOT a $70 value.  This is, at MOST, a $40 one.  Just like Remastered.  If they charged $40, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.  Instead, they are charging full price.  For something that PC players were able to do years ago.

All of their promotional material commented about how this game is completely overhauled.  Oh really?  Then why are there no new level layouts?  Why are there no new enemy types?  Why are their no new weapons?  A complete overhaul should mean that we get something that feels new.  This doesn’t.  It just feels polished.  We got lied to.

It kills me to see that THIS is what Naughty Dog has become.  Everything is the same as the original game.  The levels are the same.  The combat is the same.  There are no new areas to explore.  No new layouts that make it fresh for those who played the original.  It’s just the same game, with a very pretty new coat of paint.  Wow.  Well color me unimpressed.  It’s the exact same game, with a graphics mod.  To think that Naughty Dog is releasing cash grab games.  They are turning into Bethesda, who re-releases Skyrim every console generation.  Or how Rockstar puts out GTAV every console generation.  Except they don’t charge full price either.  Now Naughty Dog is getting in on the cash grab game, and charging us for the privilege.

Well not me!  I’m going to save my money and keep the version where the character models aren’t butt ugly.  I get to save $70.  That ain’t a small amount of money.  You all can do whatever you want with that.

Until next time, a quote,

“Maybe the scientists here got so bored that they turned themselves into fucking monkeys.” – Ellie, The Last of Us

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien’s Review: Stray

One of my biggest frustrations in the last couple years has been the lack of anything that pushes the boundaries of what gaming is.  At least where the big companies are concerned.  Sure, the Indie scene has a TON of these sorts of games.  The biggest problem for them is the limitations of resources and budget.  Plus, since I’m a console pleb, I don’t hit up Steam, which is where the overwhelming majority of these sorts of games can be found.  I’m going to have to create a Steam account when Paralives comes out.  It’s probably the only game that could make me do that.  My laptop isn’t super cutting edge, but that game doesn’t look too demanding.

I remember when I played the reboot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.  I remember how that game was more grounded and realistic and gritty than its contemporaries.  I remember how it went to darker places, like when you could kill civvies and the game didn’t immediately penalize you for it.  Rather, you had to live with the reality that you could kill innocent people and the realization that comes with it.  But did the franchise take that kind of thing and run with it?  Of course not.  It went back to being a Michael Bay movie.  Because that’s what sells.  Because that’s what people expect.  Because that’s industry standard.

Back when I was a much younger man, of the tender age of 19, I saw the videos for Final Fantasy versus XIII.  That game looked spectacular.  A game set in a more modern world, but with fantasy elements.  You play as a prince, out on a wacky roadtrip with his buds that leads them into a crazy fantasy story.  It looked amazing.  I was captivated.  But then it went away.  The game was declared vaporware by the Internet.  Then it got rebranded – Final Fantasy XV.  I was stoked!  It looked better.  It was updated for modern consoles.  It was going to be open world.  That sounded fun.  Everything about this game caught my attention and I was hooked.

Then the actual game released.  It was such a disappointment.  The concept for this game was right there.  Everything it needed to be infinitely better than its contemporaries was RIGHT THERE!  If this game had lived up to what it could have been, this would have been a game that EVERYONE was talking about.  Even to this day.  Instead, it fell short.  Like so many other games with a cool idea that they walk right up to the edge of doing something interesting, and then stop.

Which brings us to today’s game that I am reviewing – Stray.  I remember, about 9 or so years ago, I was perusing the Internet when I came across an article in the most obscure video game publication ever about a video game where you play as a cat, which had released some GIFs showing the setting.  It was modeled after the Kowloon Walled City, a place that is long destroyed, but was one of the most fascinating historical sites to learn about.  I was always interested in that.  Lots of neon lights, robots instead of people, and you get to play third person as a kitty.  I was hooked!  Right out of the gate.  Then later on, I learned that the dev team was on Twitter.  So I followed them.  Thus, gradually, I got to learn more and more about this game that had the potential to be unlike ANYTHING I had experienced before.

I am happy to say that this game doesn’t just live up to my expectations – it surpasses them.  Such a rare thing, anymore.  It seems like everywhere I go, I get nothing but disappointment.  Games that have the potential to be something spectacular, but then fall so far flat.  Games like Horizon: Forbidden West or Tales of Arise.  But my hopes here were met, and it was one of the most enjoyable gaming experience I have had in a VERY long time.  I haven’t been this captivated by a game since Persona 5.  This was such a unique experience, and let’s get into it.

The plot goes that our nameless kitty is traveling with their little pride of kitties.  However, after an accident, the kitty gets separated from the rest and is injured.  After recovering, it is driven forward by some strange force in the electronics that has caught sight of it.  You find that this force is an AI that gets put into the body of a tiny floating robot.  The robot knows there is more to what it is, but doesn’t remember.  However, kitty has their own goals, which is wanting to get out of this strange city and back with its pride.

This game is a third-persona platformer in ALL the right ways.  Traversing this world as a kitty is so fun.  The movement is so seamless and traversing the various levels of the stacked metropolis you are exploring is always fun.  The kitty is themselves such an adorable and lovable protagonist.  It only speaks in kitty language, so you don’t know what it’s saying.  Still, they are so cute and have all sorts of kitty mannerisms.  This is especially fun when you interact with the various denizens of this walled city.  The robots have lots of personality too.  Part of what makes this game so interesting is finding out what the story is with them and what happened to the humans in this place.

I will say that one thing this game could REALLY use is a photo mode.  I have so many shots I wanna make with my kitty.  There needs to be a way to do this without hoping you get a good one with the Share function on my PS4 Pro.  That is a blemish that is pretty big.  Especially given how standard this feature is becoming.  I am really loving it in games as it becomes more common.  Makes things more fun.

Speaking of photo mode, I have to talk about how GORGEOUS the environments of this game are.  Whether it be the run-down drabs of the slums, the natural retreat feel of Anttown, the foreboding of the sewers, or the gaudy neon of Midtown, this game is amazing to look at.  There is a LOT of things to pop your peepers at.  At no point did I feel like the game was holding back.  It made the scenes where the setting was ominous even better.  I won’t spoil it, but there is one area where the creepy factor was out of control.

The plot of this game is engaging AF.  It keeps you going and interesting throughout as you make your way through this place with a lot of unanswered questions that the game gives you expanded info on at a good clip.  For $30, I really feel like I got my money’s worth.  It would have been cool if I could customize my kitty, but that’s just a nit-pick.

Overall, this is a FANTASTIC game.  It is such a breath of fresh air in a medium that has gotten so horribly stale.  This is an Indie darling, and I can’t credit the team who made this enough.  The only thing holding it back is the lack of a photo mode.  Plus, this game doesn’t just hold your hand.  It expects you to engaging with the levels and explore.  I like that.  Too many games just hand-hold your way through everything.  If you love kitties and have always wanted to play as one, I cannot recommend this game enough.

Final Verdict
9 out of 10

Peace out,

Maverick

Former EA CEO Says Devs Who Don’t Use Microtransactions are “F*cking Idiots”

I’m sitting here, listening to the soundtrack of Halo 3: ODST, which I think is the best game in the franchise, believe it or not, when I see a news article cross my desk.  This was in PC Gamer.  It was about an interview with former EA CEO John Riccitello, where he had some of the most insulting things to say about game companies that aren’t money-grubbing pieces of shit who fill their games that have to all be live-services full of microtransactions.  Because every game company has to have these now.  How else will they make money if they don’t have a shit-ton of microtransactions and games aren’t a live service that they can sell forever?!  You know, exactly From Software.  They create games that aren’t a live service and that don’t have microtransactions, and they just keep on growing.  CD Projekt Red hit a bit of a snag with how rocky the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 was, but they are still in the game.  But they are some of the very, very few.

It’s getting harder and harder to get excited about gaming anymore.  I’m sure you all are tired of listening to me talk about it.  I’m sure you all wish I would have something more positive to say.  After all, people hate negativity.  Been hearing that for years.  But as I sit here, listening to this amazing soundtrack (which I also think is the best soundtrack in the franchise), I just don’t feel it.  And statements like the one from this shit-swizzler do not help my morose.  Here’s a link to the article, now let’s talk about it.

“Ferrari and some of the other high-end car manufacturers still use clay and carving knives,” Riccitiello said in reference to developers who resist monetization efforts.

“It’s a very small portion of the gaming industry that works that way, and some of these people are my favourite people in the world to fight with—they’re the most beautiful and pure, brilliant people. They’re also some of the biggest fucking idiots.”

I want to kick this man down a flight of stairs.  The people who aren’t money-grubbing shills who have no love for the craft are fucking idiots?!  They are the ones who are in the wrong?!  Not the people who bilk the players for all their worth.  Not the ones who manipulate young gamers who want to be online with their friends and don’t wanna be dressed in the thing that isn’t in, a la Fortnite.  No, it’s the ones who are passionate about gaming and creating something special that doesn’t do what everyone else does who are the idiots.

No wonder EA is such an evil corporation now.  No wonder they do virtually nothing but make games that are designed to bilk their consumers.  This puts it all wonderfully into perspective.  It feels like so long since there was any real passion in gaming for almost any company.  I don’t feel it from EA.  Don’t feel it from Activision Blizzard.  If creativity exists at Ubisoft, I would be shocked.  I am hearing rumors that there is an upcoming Assassin’s Creed game to be set in Japan.  A Ghost of Tsushima knock-off, then?  That’s EXACTLY what it will be.  The devs of that game beat them to the concept and did it splendidly, so now Ubisoft is playing catch-up.  I have been feeling less and less passion from Square Enix, over the years.

Where is the passion?  Casey Hudson started his own indie company with the OG devs of Bioware and other companies.  I am waiting on baited breath to see what they are going to make.  A bunch of guys, set free from the corpos who ruined gaming, making something with the OG Bioware flavor.  This is something that EVERYBODY is going to be talking about.

“It used to be the case that developers would throw their game over the wall to the publicist and sales force with literally no interaction beforehand,” Riccitiello said. “That model is baked into the philosophy of a lot of artforms and medium, and it’s one I am deeply respectful of; I know their dedication and care.

“But this industry divides people between those who still hold to that philosophy and those who massively embrace how to figure out what makes a successful product. And I don’t know a successful artist anywhere that doesn’t care about what their player thinks. This is where this cycle of feedback comes back, and they can choose to ignore it. But to choose to not know it at all is not a great call.”

This asshole says that the problem is that players want this, and game devs aren’t giving it to them?!  Are you fucking kidding me?!  That is what this ass-clown believes is the problem?!  Unbelievable!  If this corpo rat actually cared about this medium, then he would see that gamers fucking hate this!  They hate this microtransaction-ridden land of live services that are boring and bland and designed to keep people coming back.  The kind of games made for streamers, and nothing else.  The games that kids can play with their friends.

This is this idea in the cultural zeitgeist that video games are made for children.  Yet, the average age of players is now over 30 years old.  Still, this idea persists that gamers are all boys and maybe some college age men.  No adults play games.  They work jobs and fix tables and shit.  I hate this notion from the bottom of my little black heart, yet it will persist.  Even when you have old people who are becoming big streamers, like that old guy who streams Minecraft.  Old people are awakening to this hobby more and more, because it is very accessible to them.  It can be easy to pick up, depending on what kind of game you want, can connect you to people with streaming platforms like Twitch, and as we have seen, is very welcoming to the elders.  Old people have a TON of time on their hands, and this is a good way to talk to people and not feel lonely.

A large portion of gamers hate this new world we are living in just as much as I do.  But this smug asshole is telling us that he is the one who has his fingers on the pulse of this industry.  He is the one who gets it.  It’s all these stupid indie devs and what few companies still have integrity who don’t understand.  Fuck this guy.

Needless to say, after the interview got published, the backlash was immediate, and this corpo piece of shit tried to walk it back, because of course he did.  He’s a rat.  A money-grubbing fink who doesn’t give one dusty fuck about what this medium represents.  It’s all just dollar signs.  Didn’t try to justify it, just said that he was taken out of context.  Of course he was.  He’s not the villain this, it’s everyone else.  What a prick.  Well, fuck this guy.  Fuck EA, too.  People like him are the reason that company is a shitty graveyard of creativity that doesn’t make anything worth playing anymore.  They are dead to me.  I will never know if if Jedi: Survivor is any good, because I won’t play it.  I want nothing to do with this company anymore.  Fuck John Riccatello and everyone who thinks like him.

Until next time, a quote,

“If all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn’t be enough to go around.” – Spyro Gyra, Money

Peace out,

Maverick

Lucien’s First Take: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Trailer

In the endless world of taking things that were great and driving them into the ground, part of me is shocked that it has taken so long for Lord of the Rings‘ number to come up.  It just seemed like Peter Jackson made the trilogy untouchable.  Sure, there were the Hobbit movies, and those were fucking awful, but we can look past those for the majesty that was the original trilogy.  Is it perfect?  No.  But given the book series it is based on, the trilogy of films is pretty damn fantastic.  They were able to make a story about the wonders of the journey, while cutting out what wasn’t entirely necessary.  I own the trilogy expanded editions, and it is a joy to watch at home, where I can pause it to use the bathroom when I need.  Still got scars from watching Return of the King in theaters. 

When I first saw the teaser trailer for The Rings of Power, I had the exact same thought about it that I did about the upcoming Disney+ series Willow.  If you took away the title, it would look exactly like any other fantasy franchise.  Nothing about it seemed special.  But now we have a much more in-depth trailer to see.  And…it looks like if you took away the title, it would be exactly like any other fantasy franchise.  This looks so bland.  So vanilla.  So wrote and basic and nothing special.  It’s impressive how boring this looks.  Let’s take a look.

We begin with narration that…doesn’t seem right.  Like, what is this person talking about?  Okay, so the world is young.  Yes, I see the establishment shots that show where Amazon has spent their money in regards to this show.  They got some good CG artists.  Neat.  But, what does that narration even mean?  Not to mention, what are these stone faces carved in the mountains?  And this giant tree that makes me think of Elden Ring?  Do you see what I’m getting at about this all being bland fantasy?  Remember in the trailer for Fellowship of the Ring, how you saw the Mordor language glowing on Frodo’s face?  That really showed off that this world was special.  It got you engrossed, because you wondered what that meant and why it was shining on his face.  This narration makes me think – this better be going somewhere.

Now we get someone new talking about the elves being in forests and dwarves underground and men out in the fields.  Okay.  I can’t help but notice that the choral song in the background is in English.  You could have made this interesting if it was in elvish.  Just saying.  Tolkien made an entire language, syntax and all, for this race.  Why are you not using it?  Would help to sell the setting.

Wait, is that Galadriel in armor?  WHAT?!  No.  She was a witch.  An Elven witch.  She wasn’t some sword-wielding heroine.  Not to mention, why is this elf speaking to her in English?  Again, Tolkien worked REALLY hard to make this language.  Why do you not have these characters using it?  Yes, I’m aware that learning a language is hard, but this is supposed to be a serious production.  Not a Nostalgia Critic skit.  Take away the CG and it kinda feels like it.  Especially with how wooden some of these performances are.

The elves talk of some faceless “enemy.”  Well, given that this takes place in the First Age, it wouldn’t be Sauron.  So, who is it?  Mind giving us something to latch onto?  Again, I think back to the trailer for The Fellowship of the Ring.  You hear Gandalf talk about Sauron and you know that this dude is bad news.  Here, it’s just “the enemy.”  Who?  What are the stakes?  Why do we care?  Why are you speaking English?  Tolkien was a literary genius who created an entire language from scratch.  If you have all these “super-fans” who talk about how amazing this show is, the least you could do is have them use elvish. 

Also, why are the elves in this show looking so young?  I get that elves are immortal and fair, but they don’t look like teenagers.  They look like grown-ups.  Yet every elf I have seen in this trailer looks like they are in their teens.  This is so stupid.  This show looks so bland.  Outside of the effects, this could be the Dungeons and Dragons movie and I wouldn’t tell the difference.  Especially with these performances we are getting.

Oh hey!  We finally have an elf that looks like a grown-up.  But his speech about darkness over “the face of the Earth” (which is wrong!  The elves used the term Middle Earth) is so generic that it could be in any fantasy setting and would be just as fine.  He keeps going that this is a big threat.  What is?  Middle Earth Thanos?!  You have a story taking place in the First Age, where magic was everywhere and you had monsters and demons and giant spiders and all sorts of crazy shit!  Why aren’t you talking about any of this?!  Why are you taking a setting that should be incredible and making it boring?!  This is awful!  This setting is amazing, and you’ve made it into every single novel in the Fantasy section of Barnes and Noble.  Why?!

The montage ends with us seeing some hairy feet, presumably from hobbits.  Neat.  I got nothing to say about this.  It took a setting that is amazing and fantastical and made it boring.  It could be a story about the various forces in the First Age, dealing with a world that is much different than the one we know of from Peter Jackson’s films, and they made it about some vague evil that isn’t clearly defined.  Why isn’t it clearly defined?  Because it is boring, and the people who made this trailer know this, and so they don’t want to spoil that reality and instead just hint and super bad things and put big music over it and hope that it snags you. 

Well, it didn’t snag me.  The trailer for Dune snagged me.  It showed me characters I would get to know and let me know if the dangers of Arrakis.  The trailer for Fellowship of the Ring snagged me.  It showed the ring, let you know that this thing was dangerous, and showed that Frodo was a small man who has a big journey ahead of him.  This looks like every single other trailer I’ve ever seen in anything.  It’s boring.  So yeah, don’t care.

Initial Verdict
Never going to watch it

Peace out,

Maverick

The End of Humankind Is Coming!

Congratulations, everybody!  We have reached the peak of human civilization.  All that we will ever be.  We will never rise above this point.  How do I know this?  Because we’re all gonna die!  It’s gonna be magical.  See, if you listen to YouTuber Shoe0nHead, you hear her talk endlessly about how she refuses to eat bugs.  Boy howdy does she bemoan that a lot.  Well, Shoe, don’t you worry.  See, bugs are going extinct too!  Read all about it here!  All the species that plants depend on for pollination are going to die off, which is going to absolutely destroy the food supply in every single country on the planet.

What does this mean?  In the short term, the cost of food isn’t going down.  Ever.  In fact, it’s only going to get worse as this problem becomes more acute.  As food gets more and more expensive, and people are unable to get basic supplies, you will have cities descending into chaos.  Food wars will start between countries that are getting by and those that aren’t.  That’s to say nothing about the water wars that will start as heat keeps going up and water supplies dwindle down to nothing.  Eventually, these wars will be between nuclear-equipped nations.  At which point, nuclear winter will start to spread, making even more of the planet toxic.

To think that I’d get to see the end of humankind in my lifetime.  It’s kind of amazing.  We reached our zenith, and now we get to be the victim of our own callousness and greed.  The tragic irony is that the bulk of the boomers won’t live to see this.  Won’t live to see what their endless denial of climate change will create.  Instead, they will be dead.  And since there’s no afterlife, we don’t even get to have a last laugh at them.  Nope, they will just expire and never know what hellscape they are leaving their children and grandchildren.  I wonder if ANY of them are aware of what’s happening.  I wonder if any of them are in tears about the reality that their kids and grandkids don’t get to give them a better world.  That they will likely not live to have children of their own, if they already haven’t.

I see a lot of publications saying we need to stop talking about how the world is ending, because it is giving people a sense that everything is meaningless and without hope, humanity can’t continue.  But that’s just it – there is NO HOPE!  We did this to ourselves.  Kids like Greta Thunberg are fighting for something better, and Groj bless her, but it’s a wasted effort.  She will suffer the same fate as all of us.  The world is going to burn up and everyone will kill each other for whatever’s left.

Publication after publication keeps asking – why aren’t millennials making babies?  Ain’t that deep, fam.  It’s too expensive to live anymore, and we have a painful realization that our time on this planet is coming to an end.  What future are we giving children?  One where they to get be in the water and food wars?  One where they get to die because of nuclear winter?  Yeah, what a great idea.  Have children to feed into the maw of capitalism, to see the end of humanity with us.  Sounds like a blast.

For those who are thinking – if there is no hope, why do you bother?  Well, there are still things I want to see before I die.  And I got this fiance who makes it worth keeping going.  We have a fur-baby.  A cute kitty named Tali.  Named for Tali Zorah vas Normandy from the Mass Effect trilogy.  It’s a character most like my fiance, so she wanted to name the cat after her when she came into our home.  We want to get her a sibling kitty for when she’s bored.  She came from a home with other cats, so it would be good for her.

However, I have no illusions that my day is coming.  All of ours is.  We get to either see the end ourselves, or the beginning of it.  All the “journalists” who write that things will get bad, but will inevitably be okay are delusional.  It’s going to be the end.  It was 100% avoidable.  We could have taken steps, far earlier.  But instead, all we saw was a chance to get rich and be powerful.  And now, here we are.  I wonder when the octopus people who replace us after extinction, who will find what little is left of our once great civilizations, will think of us.  A species who had so much potential and power, only to waste it away doing absolutely fuck all with it.

We could have a space elevator now, taking supplies up to a space station.  Which would have made space shuttles obsolete.  We could have wrangled asteroids and used them to mine the resources that are in such little supply here, but are absolutely essential to modern life.  No more trashing our own planet.  Asteroids can be mined and then thrown into the Sun.  Clean as simple.  We should have colonies on the Moon and Mars by now.  We should be working on the first space colony in geosynchronous orbit.  By now, the gasoline-powered engine should be being phased out, as getting cheaper vehicles is infinitely cheaper due to the availability of materials to make them and the growth of technology that has occurred as humanity is expanding to the stars. 

Capitalism would be an outmoded system, which only gives for the very rich and doesn’t do a goddamn thing for anyone else.  Instead, we would have a socialist economy where the workers are the majority owners of companies, controlling the means of production and getting to help set prices.  Nations on Earth would be on the way out, with the whole of the planet enjoying the wealth of resources and ushering in our species to a new golden age.  Sure, there would be some tension as colonies on the Moon and Mars start to grow and there is a sense of them wanting their autonomy, but these things can be worked out.

We had a glorious opportunity to be amazing, as a species.  Instead, we chose to be lame.  Well done, humanity.  I hope you’re proud.  End of the human race party!

Until next time, a quote,

“Do you read your philosophers? A man named Thomas Hobbes? “When all the world is overcharged with inhabitants, then the last remedy of all is war, which provideth for every man by victory, or death.” – Thane Krios, Mass Effect 2

Peace out,

Maverick

More Stories From Bonkersland America

I’ve reached a consensus that this country is too stupid to live.  We have reached a point that we are too corrupt and too ridiculous to survive as a country anymore.  We need to collapse.  This country needs to just implode and then, from the ashes of our own failure, we can rise and actually move into the future.  Sure, we will no longer be the strongest country in the world.  America will go down a bunch of pegs in the world.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  Some humility would do America SO much good.  I got a bunch of stories today that just blow my fucking mind.

Perhaps you heard about the 10 year old girl who was raped and because of Ohio’s policy of abortion being banned in their state, she had to go to Indiana to get her rapist’s fetus out of her.  If you did hear about this, perhaps you heard the conservative outlets who, one and all, decided to say that this little girl was fictitious.  That she is a creation of liberal America to sell their talking point that women and girls need to have control of their own bodies and the parasites that grow in them.  Even the Attorney General of Ohio decided to get in on the fun and say that this little girl wasn’t real.  Something you’d think a government official would keep to themselves, but red states aren’t known for the intellect of the people who run them.

Yeah, needless to say, this was thoroughly disgusting.  However, when it got released that the rapist of the aforementioned little girl was apprehended, conservative news outlets decided that instead of getting some egg on their face and admitting they were wrong, they decided that they would instead make it about the ethnicity of the rapist and the fact that he is an illegal immigrant, smugly stating with pride that “the left” won’t talk about this aspect.  Yes, the story SHOULD be about the fact that the rapist is an illegal immigrant.  Not that a little girl was raped and would have been forced to have that piece of shit’s baby in a state that is trash.  Nope, let’s instead make it about immigration.

Not hard to see why conservatives would want to shift the topic away from women.  They do hate them, after all.  See, if they were ACTUALLY against abortion, they would be in favor of things like contraception, quality sex education, and access to proper medical care for expecting mothers.  But nope!  In fact, they are categorically against all three of those things.  It was NEVER about abortion for them.  It was about controlling women, which they want because they don’t like them.  To even the smallest degree.  They see women as people who should defer to men, and those who don’t need to be set straight.

But hey, while we’re talking about kids, I did a post about the leaked footage of the cops milling about as the shooter blew away children with a civilian-model assault rifle.  Well, that video was actually edited.  See, somebody figured that hearing the screams of children as the cops stand about and check their phones and one was even having a laugh about something might not go over well. I wonder what joke he was told that got me to laugh it up while children are dying.  Personally, I think it should have been played without that edited out.  Let’s hear what the children were screaming as they died and the police didn’t do a single goddamn thing.  Not one fucking thing, because they are COWARDS!  All police are cowards.  It’s an institution that makes people into gutless worms who are scared of their own shadows. 

A recent poll came out showing that 16% of Americans have a positive view of Congress.  I have to ask – what the fuck is wrong with those 16% of people?  How little does Congress need to do for these people to think that they are doing a good job?  It baffles me.  Baffled Sen. Bernie Sanders at a statement he gave to Congress, which looked rather empty.  Once again, the only person saying the right thing is saying it to nobody except his followers on Twitter.  This isn’t the first time he’s made presentations to nobody.  He did it before both of the wars in Iraq.  A shame he didn’t have the spine to call the Democratic Party out when they blatantly rigged the primary against him.  But people with a spine is a painfully rare commodity in government.

For those of you who think that the American people are someone any better than the government that I shit all over, let me reassure with the knowledge – we aren’t.  In fact, there was a recent study that came out that showed that the number of people who believe that the Sun orbits the Earth actually went UP between 1999 and 2014.  I hear that, and I think to myself – this country is too stupid to exist.  We are too stupid to be an actual country.  People in America are so fucking scientifically illiterate that we have people thinking that the sun orbits the Earth.  To say nothing about the people who think that the Earth is flat.  These people are a special breed of stupid.  Makes me think back to that idiot who built a steam-powered rocket, making it perpetually more powerful, all to be able to go up far enough to see that the Earth is flat, who ended up dying in one of his attempts.  Part of me REALLY wants to believe that this dipshit saw the curvature of Earth in his last attempt and finally realized how stupid he is, until he then realized that he is going to hit the ground and die.

In other news about the police being complete pieces of shit, at the funeral of Jayland Walker, who had 60 rounds put into him by piece of shit cops who decided that running from the police is punishable by death, Summit County SWAT teams were deployed outside the establishment having the funeral.  Apparently they looked at what the IDF did at the funeral of that woman journalist who they murdered and thought that those apartheid mother-fuckers really had the right idea. 

Articles are coming up saying that Biden is too old to be President.  You’d think this would be the media FINALLY admitting that the guy is a brain-dead geriatric zombie, but nope.  Instead, what it is is a lot more sinister.  See, the Democrat’s pet media is setting up a narrative.  Saying that Biden is too old so that when he doesn’t run in 2024 (if they try to stick with him, they might as well just let DeSantis take his place in the White House now), so they can then turn around and use that against Bernie Sanders, who has expressed interest in making yet-another go at it.  2024 might be his best actual shot.  The party has NOBODY.  Buttigieg has exactly ZERO support among the black community.  We keep seeing article that now is the time for Shillary to come back.  But she is even more hated now than she was before.  Kloubacher?  Nope.  Kopmala Harris has even less charisma than Buttgieg, and that’s saying something.  She seems to have adopted Biden’s ability to not speak in complete sentences recently.  Maybe it’s the fact that people are actually asking her hard questions, and without her handlers to tell her what her feelings are, she is a blithering idiot.  The party has nobody they can put out to challenge Bernie, if he runs again.

I’ll end this on a positive note.  There is a truck selling popsicles that have the heads of rich people on them.  The business name is Eat the Rich.  I love this.  It’s inspiring.  With the rich finally cashing in on the death of this country, it is so far past time that the guillotines got polished up again that it isn’t funny.  Once the leftists start arming themselves, there will be no real resistance.  The cops will fold like lawn chairs, and any private corpo military that they would hire won’t stand by them when the mob is at their front door.  After all, just like with the sellswords of old, you can’t pay them enough to die for them, so they will ditch them without a second thought.  Here’s hoping people take the concept of that popsicle truck seriously.

Until next time, a quote,

“I’m not questioning your honor, Ser Janos.  I’m denying its existence.” – Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones

Peace out,

Maverick

The Uvalde Police Cowardice Opera, Act III

Perhaps Act III is being a little generous.  This sad, pathetic story has had so many leaks come out about it that it could be Act V or VI.  First we had the parents begging and pleading with the cops to save their children.  We thought at first it was over 40 minutes when the cops didn’t do a goddamn thing.  Then it was later revealed that it was over an HOUR and SEVENTEEN minutes that they didn’t do a goddamn thing to save the 19 children and 2 teachers who were shot and killed.  The cops said that the shooter had an AR-15 and a pistol.  We later learned that this was a lie.  The shooter only had an AR-15.  Which, as far as I’m concerned, means that the cops killed at least one of the kids.

We learned that the cops told the children if they were inside to say something.  Oops!  Turns out, that just helped the shooter find the children to kill, with no resistance from the pussy police (as if there is another kind.  Brave cops are like four-leafed clovers.  They exist, but in such rarity as to be believed to be a myth).  We then learned that a woman actually got free of her restraints and outran the pussy cops on foot (god this woman impresses me) to go into the building and save her children.  She ended up having to go away from her family because the Feds are harassing her.  She was literally threatened that if she talked to the media, she would be charged with a crime.  Her courage was a shining beacon.

Next, we learned that a cop was the husband of one of the victims of this shooting.  When he found out, he actually decided to get his dander up and do the right thing.  But his pussy brethren literally forced him down and took his weapon away.  From there, we have a plethora of FOIA requests to see the body-cam footage of the pussy cops that the Uvalde police department has hired outside help to fight.  Because they are DESPERATE to not have this footage get out.  Not hard to see why, since there was a leak yesterday (as of the writing of this post) showing that not only did the cops do fuck all to stop this killer from murdering children and teachers, but they even decided to chill out.

Yeah, we have one cop who decided that he needed some hand sanitizer.  Gotta worry about those germs, after all.  Another cop decided to take out his phone and text.  The real irony about this one is that he had the Punisher on his phone.  Because Frank Castle would have stood outside and did nothing as children were being murdered.  I am hearing that this cop is the one that may have been restrained when he tried to save his wife.  If so, I withdraw my complaint.  However, I am skeptical.  In any event, the footage shows that the police weren’t even trying to do anything in this situation.  They milled about outside for an HOUR and SEVENTEEN minutes while 21 children and teachers in total died.

This whole instance should, once and for all, thoroughly debunk several ideas.  First, that cops are brave heroes.  They are cowards who only throw their weight around against foes who can’t fight back.  Put them against a real threat, and they tuck tail and run.  Good thing leftist protestors haven’t decided to arm up.  They would fold like lawn chairs.  Second, that the good guy with the gun stops the bad guy with the gun.  This idea needs to be decommissioned forever.  It is NRA propaganda, and we now have multiple instance of it being proven DEAD WRONG.  We saw it in Parkland, where four sheriff’s deputies and the school’s security officer stood outside and did nothing as teachers and students were murdered.  Now we saw it at Uvalde, where over a dozen police and border patrol and even a Texas Marshall were standing around and doing nothing.  Third, that America’s gun laws are not a problem.  Lauren Boebert, intellectual simpleton that she is, decided to use the mass shooting in Denmark as a point about how gun laws don’t work.  That was their first mass shooting since 1994.  In America, they happen every three hours.  Every three hours, guns are used to murder people.  This is fucking insane.

From where I’m sitting, all the police who were at that school in Uvalde need to be fired and then arrested and tried as accessories to murder.  They stood there and didn’t do a goddamn thing to stop it.  Not one.  They are just as responsible for those children’s deaths as the shooter.  If they are supposed to be the ones who help, if they are charged with this, and they do nothing then they are accessories.  Granted, SCOTUS would disagree, as they said that police have no “legal obligation to protect or serve.”  Instead, they exist to help the state.  To protect the rich.  Which is all the police have ever done.

After the footage was leaked, there was a city council meeting where the council members were insulting that parents and community members who demanded answers.  Mayor shits on them, then yells at the journalists who released this video.  Who did their job and showed the entire country what gutless, faithless cowards his officers are.  Every single cop in that video, save the one who actually tried and was restrained, should lose their job and then be in a cell as accessories to murder.  Accessory After the Fact has a fine of up to $5,000 and 16-month to 3 years in prison.  That should be all of them.  Take away all their benefits, their pensions, all of it, and then put them in a prison jumpsuit.  See how their fellow inmates like seeing a bunch of cops who let a killer blow away children in gen pop. 

Nothing more to say about this.  It’s beyond tragic.  This whole affair has brought to light what weak, pathetic people the police are.  Even the boot-lickers who get on their knees to praise the cops are suspiciously quiet.  Good.  There’s nothing to praise here.  Just things to look at the police and hope they feel their shame.

Until next time, a quote,

“It can’t be bargained with.  It can’t be reasoned with.  It doesn’t feel pity or remorse.  And it will not stop, until you are dead.” – Kyle Reese, The Terminator

Peace out,

Maverick