I get what you’re saying, and you’re not wrong, but I seriously doubt that protests would have escalated to the point that LAPD would be using pepper balls, rubber bullets, and tear gas if not for the national guard being federalized. To me that was an escalation in itself.

It’d be like 3-4 officers standing in a line across from protesters just watching in case things were to get out of hand. Then all of a sudden a sheriff from another state insults the protesters, sends 20 other officers in riot gear to stand next to you, and they start walking at the protesters to intimidate and beat them. So sure LAPD is more than capable of being huge pieces of shit, but what is the sheriff supposed to do in this situation? Pull his officers off the streets entirely? It’s still his jurisdiction. That’d be wholely irresponsible.

Go for it. There’s not nearly enough active duty national guardsmen capable of deploying to all 50 states.

People have trouble separating the art from the artist. I don’t blame them. It’s tough sometimes. I used to really love Kanye before he turned out to be a nazi. Watch the Throne and Graduation are fantastically produced albums with some excellent songs. Same with College Dropout.

I still listen to them when they come up in my playlists but the magic is pretty well gone. I think that he was and is mentally ill so with the right people around him he probably wouldn’t have turned into such a piece of shit, but here we are.

Illinois redistricted recently and it was gerrymandered to fuck to make sure that her district was absolutely backwoods conservative as possible. It practically ensures Illinois will swing blue for the next decade. She’s unfortunately my representative, but I’ll live with that reality knowing that my existence as her constituent pisses her off and Illinois stays blue.